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Email Subscribers CVE-2026-83555

| EUVDEUVD-2026-85031 MEDIUM
Missing Authorization (CWE-862)
2026-09-23 contact@wpscan.com GHSA-52g9-h9fh-xgf2
5.3
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: wpscan
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Obtain target subscriber email address
  2. Exploit
    Send crafted status-change request omitting valid management token
  3. Execution
    Plugin skips per-subscriber token verification
  4. Impact
    Subscription status force-changed for arbitrary subscriber

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Authorization checks on every request
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

No authentication, user interaction, or special configuration required - remote unauthenticated exploitation works against default installations of the Email Subscribers & Newsletters WordPress plugin before 5.9.35. The only practical prerequisite is that the attacker must KNOW the target subscriber's email address, since the status-change is keyed to that address; the vulnerability is that the plugin does not verify the per-subscriber management token that should authorize the change. Limiting factor: impact is restricted to toggling subscription status (unsubscribe/confirm) of known addresses - no data disclosure, code execution, or site takeover is possible.

Impact

This is a genuine but low-to-moderate priority issue, not a high-severity one. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N = 5.3 MEDIUM) is internally consistent with the description: a missing-authorization flaw (CWE-862) reachable remotely by unauthenticated attackers with no user interaction, but with integrity-only impact (I:L) and no confidentiality or availability impact. The attacker cannot read subscriber data or take down the site - they can only flip an arbitrary known email's subscription status (force-unsubscribe or force-confirm). No EPSS score, KEV listing, or public POC is present in the input, so there is no evidence of active exploitation or automated weaponization; this reads as a data-integrity/nuisance and anti-spam-abuse concern (e.g., mass force-confirm to fake consent, or mass force-unsubscribe to disrupt a mailing list). The one caveat requiring judgment: exploitation requires knowing the target's email address, which slightly raises practical difficulty against a specific victim but not against bulk/enumerated lists - the CVSS AC:L reasonably reflects that no technical complexity is involved once an email is known.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An unauthenticated attacker who knows or has harvested subscriber email addresses sends crafted requests to the plugin's subscription-status endpoint without supplying the valid per-subscriber management token, which the plugin fails to verify. They can then force-unsubscribe recipients to disrupt a site's newsletter, or force-confirm addresses to fabricate opt-in consent. No public exploit code is identified in the provided data, but the flaw is trivially scriptable against a known email list.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
Patch available 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Sep 23, 2026

Missing authorization in the WordPress plugin Email Subscribers & Newsletters (versions before 5.9.35) lets unauthenticated remote attackers force-unsubscribe or force-confirm an arbitrary subscriber simply by supplying that subscriber's email address, because the plugin never validates the per-subscriber management token that should gate the subscription-status change. Exploitation requires no authentication, no user interaction, and no special configuration - only knowledge of a target email address on the mailing list. Impact is confined to integrity manipulation of subscription state (silent removal or confirmation of subscribers), with no data disclosure, code execution, or site takeover; only a single reference (WPScan advisory) is available, and no public exploit code or confirmed active exploitation has been identified at time of analysis.

RemediationAI

The primary fix is to upgrade the Email Subscribers & Newsletters plugin to version 5.9.35 or later - the first release that restores validation of the per-subscriber management token; vendor-released patch: 5.9.35, as reflected in the 'before 5.9.35' affected range and the vendor patch availability noted in the source data. Plugin updates on WordPress are typically applied through the admin dashboard under Plugins → Installed Plugins, or via WP-CLI (wp plugin update email-subscribers), and sites using managed hosting or auto-updates should confirm the version actually landed. Where immediate upgrade is not possible, specific compensating controls include temporarily deactivating the plugin (guaranteed fix, but disables all subscription, newsletter, and mailing-list functionality and hides opt-in forms), or restricting external access to the plugin's subscription-status/confirmation endpoints at the WAF, reverse proxy, or web-server level so that only trusted networks or the legitimate confirmation flow can reach them (partial mitigation; it can break legitimate double opt-in confirmations and unsubscribe links for real subscribers, and crafted requests that bypass the filter remain exploitable). Because exploitation only requires knowing a subscriber's email address, routine email-address hygiene and monitoring subscriber lists for unexplained unsubscribe/confirm churn are useful detective measures but are not preventive; since no public exploit code is known, the risk is more one of quiet subscriber-list manipulation than mass automated attack. Advisory reference: https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/54cb2a98-7860-40dd-817e-1294317084aa/ (and NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-83555).

Affected VersionsENISA

Email Subscribers & Newsletters 0 <5.9.35

Affected Packages

euvd email_subscribers_newsletters fix: 5.9.35

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

The vulnerable component is a WordPress plugin, Email Subscribers & Newsletters, which manages mailing-list subscribers and exposes endpoints for subscribing, confirming (double opt-in), and unsubscribing via email addresses. The flaw maps to CWE-862 (Missing Authorization): the handler that changes a subscriber's status performs no verification of the per-subscriber management token - the secret that links a status-change request to a specific subscriber record and prevents one party from acting on another's behalf. Functionally the plugin treats knowledge of the email address as sufficient authority, so an attacker who knows or guesses a subscriber address can trigger state transitions (force-unsubscribe or force-confirm) on that record. The CVSS 3.1 vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N confirms network-reachable, low-complexity, unauthenticated exploitation with no user interaction and a low integrity-only impact; the absence of confidentiality and availability impact reflects that only the subscription flag - not subscriber data, credentials, or site content - is altered. CPE-style version data (EUVD: 'Email Subscribers & Newsletters 0 <5.9.35') and the WPScan-sourced advisory confirm the affected range as every release prior to 5.9.35, with no other product or platform involved.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

Vendor (wpscan) PRIMARY 5.3 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
vuln.today AI 5.3 MEDIUM

Unauthenticated remote request with no interaction (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N); integrity-only impact limited to flipping subscription status (I:L), no confidentiality or availability effect.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (wpscan).

CVSS VectorVendor: wpscan

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

Lifecycle Timeline

4
CVSS changed
Sep 23, 2026 - 11:22 NVD
5.3 (MEDIUM)
Patch available
Sep 23, 2026 - 07:01 EUVD
CVE Published
Sep 23, 2026 - 06:17 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)
CVE Published
Sep 23, 2026 - 06:17 cve.org
MEDIUM 5.3

DescriptionCVE.org

The Email Subscribers & Newsletters WordPress plugin before 5.9.35 does not verify the per-subscriber management token before changing a subscriber's subscription status, allowing unauthenticated users to force-unsubscribe or force-confirm an arbitrary subscriber whose email address they know.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 92% exploitable
Prevalence
High
Email Subscribers & Newsletters is a very widely installed WordPress newsletter plugin
Data Quality
5 sources
Confidence: Medium

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.2%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
Yes
Human Impact· derived
High
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

26
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +26
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.

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