# CVE-2026-12251: Ultimate Member < 2.12.1 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Role Selection Field

> Unauthenticated attackers can gain administrative access by registering with a privileged role if a role-selection field is present and safeguards are disabled.

- **Severity:** High 8.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 31 Jul 2026
- **Updated:** 31 Jul 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-x3gc-pq2r-3884

## What is CVE-2026-12251?

CVE-2026-12251 is a high-severity vulnerability in Unknown Ultimate Member, published on 31 Jul 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The Ultimate Member  WordPress plugin before 2.12.1 does not filter administrator-level capabilities from the roles it makes selectable on its registration forms, and its post-registration safeguard against elevated accounts is disabled by default, allowing unauthenticated users to register with a site-defined role that carries administrator capabilities and gain administrative access, when such a role exists and a role-selection field is present on a published registration form.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-12251?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-12251?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-12251 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-12251 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-12251 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-12251 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-12251 is a high-severity vulnerability in Unknown Ultimate Member, published on 31 Jul 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-12251 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Unknown Ultimate Member. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-12251/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-12251/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-12251
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-12251
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-12251

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-12251/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.