CVE-2026-12497 ProfilePress < 4.16.18 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Registration Role Selection
Unauthenticated attackers can register with elevated roles like Editor due to inconsistent role validation in the ProfilePress WordPress plugin.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-12497?
CVE-2026-12497 is a high-severity vulnerability in Unknown Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content, published on 24 Jul 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
The Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content WordPress plugin before 4.16.18 does not consistently enforce the role restriction configured on its front-end registration role-selection field. The set of roles offered to the visitor and the set of roles the registration handler accepts are derived by two different parsers, and for some valid ways of configuring the offered roles the handler ignores the restriction and falls back to accepting any non-administrator role. Combined with the absence of a nonce on the public registration handler, this allows an unauthenticated visitor to register an account with a higher role, such as Editor or Author, than the form was configured to offer.
Weakness: CWE-269
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-12497?
How do I fix CVE-2026-12497?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-12497 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2026-12497 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-12497 exists.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-qw3x-5xr6-mfgm.