CVE-2026-77194 Auth bypass in Simple Membership
Unauthenticated attackers can take over Administrator accounts in WordPress Multisite by exploiting improper identity verification during registration.
- 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-2026-77194?
CVE-2026-77194 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in wpinsider-1 Simple Membership, published on 1 Sep 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
The Simple Membership plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass leading to Administrator Account Takeover in versions up to, and including, 4.8.0. This is due to improper identity verification during the public registration flow in WordPress Multisite environments, where the plugin binds new Simple Membership records to existing global WordPress users based solely on matching username and email, without requiring password verification or ownership proof, and fails to properly detect Administrator roles on child sites. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to take over Administrator accounts on child sites in a Multisite network by registering a Simple Membership account with a victim's credentials on a site where public registration is enabled, then updating the victim's global WordPress password through the profile edit functionality. The vulnerability was partially patched in version 4.8.1.
Weakness: CWE-287
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-77194?
How do I fix CVE-2026-77194?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-77194 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.
Is CVE-2026-77194 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-77194 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-w48h-3prc-xgxg.