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User Registration & Membership EUVDEUVD-2026-76952

| CVE-2026-80071 HIGH
Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269)
2026-09-13 WPScan GHSA-7cc7-ppv7-mjwp
7.2
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 or register Author-level WordPress account
  2. Delivery
    Craft membership plan with Administrator role assigned
  3. Exploit
    Submit plan attachment request for own account
  4. Execution
    Plugin applies role without authorization check
  5. Persist
    Attacker account elevated to Administrator
  6. Impact
    Full WordPress site takeover

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Least privilege enforcement
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

Exploitation requires an authenticated WordPress account with at least Author-level role on the target site; Subscriber and Contributor roles are not stated as sufficient based on the description. The User Registration & Membership plugin must be installed, activated, and running a version below 5.2.8. No non-default plugin configuration is required beyond standard activation. Exploitation is not possible without a valid Author-or-above account, limiting purely unauthenticated attack paths. Limiting factors include: (1) attacker must hold or obtain an Author-level or higher account, which is not granted by default to public registrants on most sites; (2) the plugin must be actively installed; (3) no exploitation is possible against sites where user registration is closed and no Author accounts exist for the attacker to compromise or register into.

Impact

The provided CVSS vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H scores 7.2 by assigning PR:H. However, the description explicitly states exploitation requires only Author-level access, which in WordPress corresponds to PR:L - a low-privilege role regularly granted to content contributors and not requiring any administrative trust. This metric mismatch is a significant scoring error that understates real-world exploitability; correcting to PR:L raises the base score to approximately 8.8. A publicly available exploit exists per WPScan's advisory, meaning weaponization requires no novel research. EPSS data is not included in the supplied intelligence. No CISA KEV listing is present, so confirmed widespread active exploitation is not established. Despite the absence of KEV status, the combination of a low-privilege entry point, a trivial exploitation path (no race condition or chained vulnerability required), and a published exploit makes this a genuine priority for any WordPress site using this plugin with Author-level accounts.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker registers or is granted an Author account on a WordPress site running User Registration & Membership before 5.2.8. Using the publicly available WPScan exploit, they submit a crafted membership plan creation or attachment request that specifies the Administrator role for their own account; the plugin applies the role without validating it against the submitter's current privilege level. The attacker's account is immediately elevated to Administrator, granting full control over the WordPress site including plugin management, user management, and hosting-level file operations through the theme/plugin editor.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
Patch available 0.3% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Sep 13, 2026

Privilege escalation in the User Registration & Membership WordPress plugin before 5.2.8 allows any authenticated user holding an Author-level role or above to assign themselves an arbitrary WordPress role, including Administrator, resulting in full site takeover. The plugin fails to enforce server-side authorization checks when creating membership plans and when users attach plans to their own accounts, permitting role manipulation that bypasses WordPress's native access-control hierarchy. A publicly available exploit exists via WPScan, and the CVSS 7.2 score understates real-world risk because the provided PR:H metric conflicts with the description's requirement of only Author-level access - a low-privilege role - suggesting a closer real-world base score of approximately 8.8.

RemediationAI

Upgrade the User Registration & Membership plugin to version 5.2.8 or later, which introduces proper server-side checks on membership plan authorship and role assignment. The patch is confirmed available from the vendor per supplied intelligence. Site administrators should apply the update immediately via the WordPress admin dashboard (Plugins → Updates) or WP-CLI (wp plugin update user-registration). As a compensating control pending patching, remove or revoke Author-level (and above) accounts for any untrusted or external users, since the vulnerability requires an authenticated session at that level or higher. Restricting new user registrations to Subscriber role only also limits the attack surface. Note that subscriber-level users are not stated as able to exploit this issue based on the current description, but audit all existing Author/Editor accounts for unexpected role assignments as an indicator of prior exploitation. Advisory references: WPScan https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/a4fbdeea-0d3b-466b-b4b6-4c4db277cd1d/ and NVD https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-80071.

Affected VersionsENISA

User Registration & Membership 0 <5.2.8

Affected Packages

euvd user_registration_membership fix: 5.2.8

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 affected product is the User Registration & Membership WordPress plugin (CPE: cpe:2.3:a:unknown:user_registration_&_membership:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*, all versions before 5.2.8). The plugin extends WordPress user registration with membership plan functionality, where plans define what role a registered user is granted. The root cause is CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management): the plugin lacks adequate server-side checks to (1) restrict membership plan authorship to appropriately privileged users, and (2) validate that the role embedded in a plan does not exceed the submitting user's own privilege level. In WordPress's role hierarchy - Subscriber, Contributor, Author, Editor, Administrator - Author is a low-privilege role commonly granted to content contributors. Because the plugin does not validate role assignment against the current user's capabilities, any Author-or-above can craft or attach a plan that specifies the Administrator role for their own account.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

Vendor (WPScan) PRIMARY 7.2 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI 8.8 HIGH

Author is a low-privilege WordPress role (PR:L), not high; full admin takeover justifies C:H/I:H/A:H with no scope change on single-site installs.

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

Primary rating from Vendor (WPScan).

CVSS VectorVendor: WPScan

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

Lifecycle Timeline

4
CVSS changed
Sep 13, 2026 - 11:22 NVD
7.2 (HIGH)
Patch available
Sep 13, 2026 - 07:01 EUVD
CVE Published
Sep 13, 2026 - 06:00 cve.org
HIGH 7.2
CVE Published
Sep 13, 2026 - 06:00 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionCVE.org

The User Registration & Membership WordPress plugin before 5.2.8 does not properly restrict who may author a membership plan or validate the plan a user attaches to their own account, allowing authenticated users with Author-level access and above to assign themselves an arbitrary role and escalate their privileges to Administrator.

Technical POC Analysis

CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management).

Full technical POC analysis - root cause, step-by-step exploitation and patch breakdown - is part of the Pro and Business plans.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

The User Registration & Membership WordPress plugin (versions before 5.2.8) contains a privilege escalation vulnerability enabling any Author-level user to escalate themselves to Administrator, achieving complete site compromise. With publicly available exploit code circulating, organizations using this plugin face immediate risk of unauthorized administrative takeover from both internal users and external actors with Author-level access.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

Apply vendor patch.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.3%
Top 83% exploitable
Prevalence
Medium
popular WordPress membership/registration plugin, not core
Exploit
POC
Public exploit code exists
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 HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC Yes
EPSS 0.3%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
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
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
No
Human Impact
High
Technical Impact
Total

Priority Score

56
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +36
PoC: +20
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Privilege escalation occurs when an attacker leverages flaws in access control mechanisms to gain permissions beyond what they were originally granted.

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