# 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.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 24 Jul 2026
- **Updated:** 24 Jul 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-qw3x-5xr6-mfgm

## 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 (Improper Privilege Management)

## 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.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-12497 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-12497 exists.

Affected product: Unknown Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content. 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-2026-12497/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-12497/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-12497
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-12497
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-12497

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-12497/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.