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Simple Membership EUVDEUVD-2026-91908

| CVE-2026-97337 HIGH
Missing Authorization (CWE-862)
2026-10-03 Wordfence GHSA-7wr9-4367-v9vm
7.5
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: Wordfence
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Attack ChainAIDerived

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

  1. Access
    Identify pending member registration
  2. Delivery
    Send crafted POST to resend/email-activation endpoint
  3. Exploit
    Override recipient via attacker-controlled $_POST['email']
  4. Execution
    Receive redirected activation and credential email
  5. Impact
    Activate victim account and take over

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

Exploitable only against Simple Membership installations (≤4.8.3) that have pending, not-yet-activated member accounts, because the attack hijacks the activation/resend-activation flow; sites with no pending registrations have no exploitable target. The resend-activation and email-activation endpoints are dispatched on frontend init with no authentication, nonce, capability, or ownership check, and the recipient is taken verbatim from the attacker-supplied $_POST['email'] parameter, so no credentials or user interaction from the victim are required. The practical limiter is knowledge of a valid pending member's identifier/email and the time window before that member activates their own account; confidentiality impact (plaintext password/username disclosure) occurs only if the follow-up 'registration complete' email is successfully redirected.

Impact

The signals align toward a genuine, prioritizable access-control flaw but short of emergency status. The input CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N, 7.5) is consistent with the description: a network-reachable, low-complexity, unauthenticated endpoint (resend-activation / email-activation) dispatched from SwpmInitTimeTasks::check_and_do_email_activation() on frontend init with no authentication, nonce, capability, or ownership check (CWE-862, Missing Authorization). The C:H rating is well supported - the redirected 'registration complete' email leaks the member's username and plaintext password to an attacker-chosen address. However, the input vector's I:N understates the integrity impact: the description explicitly states the attacker can activate a pending member's account without consent and perform 'unauthorized modification of data,' which is an integrity effect - verify this discrepancy with Wordfence/NVD, as I:N appears inconsistent with the narrative. No EPSS score, KEV listing, or POC indicator was supplied; absence of these is not evidence of safety but means there is no public exploit identified at time of analysis and no confirmation of active exploitation. Net: a real priority for any site running the plugin because exploitation is trivial and unauthenticated, but it is NOT in the emergency tier reserved for KEV/confirmed-exploited issues. Exploitation also depends on the existence of pending (not-yet-activated) member accounts, which limits the realistic attack surface.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An unauthenticated attacker identifies or guesses an email/username tied to a pending Simple Membership registration and sends a crafted POST request to the resend-activation (or email-activation) endpoint with a $_POST['email'] value they control. The plugin, lacking any authentication, nonce, capability, or ownership check, sends the activation and follow-up 'registration complete' email - containing the member's username and plaintext password - to the attacker's address, after which the attacker activates and takes over the account. No public exploit code was identified at time of analysis, but the attack is trivial to script given low complexity and no authentication.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
No patch listed yet 0.4% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Oct 03, 2026

Unauthenticated attackers can redirect activation and registration-complete emails to an arbitrary address in Simple Membership (WordPress plugin) versions up to and including 4.8.3, leading to disclosure of a pending member's username and plaintext password, and can activate that member's account without consent. The flaw resides in the resend-activation and email-activation endpoints, which are invoked on frontend init without authentication, nonce, capability, or ownership checks, and accept a recipient address from attacker-controlled POST data. Exploitation requires the target site to have at least one pending, unactivated member account; no public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis.

RemediationAI

Upgrade Simple Membership to a version that includes the upstream fix (changeset 3716437); the exact patched version is not specified in the available data, so check the plugin repository or Wordfence advisory for the latest release. Until an update is applied, consider deactivating the plugin if it is not essential, as this eliminates exposure but renders membership functionality unavailable. Alternatively, use a web application firewall (WAF) to block requests to the vulnerable endpoints (e.g., URLs containing 'swpm_resend_activation' or 'swpm_email_activation'), though this may break legitimate activation flows and requires careful rule tuning. Also, promptly activate or remove any pending member accounts to reduce the attack surface, as exploitation requires a pending registration. For detailed guidance, refer to the vendor advisory at https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/ae2b6c4c-7dd6-41e7-8b8d-c09aa7fa660b?source=cve and the changeset at https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&old=3716437%40simple-membership&new=3716437%40simple-membership.

Affected VersionsENISA

Simple Membership 0 ≤4.8.3

Affected Packages

euvd simple_membership no fix

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 vulnerability is a missing authorization (CWE-862) issue in the Simple Membership WordPress plugin. The plugin's SwpmInitTimeTasks::check_and_do_email_activation() method processes the resend-activation and email-activation actions on the frontend init hook, dispatching them without any authentication, nonce, capability, or ownership validation. The recipient email address is passed to SwpmRegistration::send_reg_email() directly from the $_POST['email'] parameter, overriding the member's registered email address. This allows an attacker to redirect the activation email and the subsequent 'registration complete' email (which contains the member's username and plaintext password) to an address they control. The attacker can then use the activation link to activate the member's account. The affected component is identified by CPE cpe:2.3:a:wpinsider-1:simple_membership:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* and versions through 4.8.3. Relevant source code is in class.swpm-init-time-tasks.php (line 167), class.swpm-front-registration.php (lines 774 and 850), and class.swpm-registration.php (line 75).

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Severity by source

Vendor (Wordfence) PRIMARY 7.5 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
vuln.today AI 8.2 HIGH

Network-reachable unauthenticated endpoints with no checks give AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N; plaintext credential leak drives C:H, and unauthorized account activation/data modification justifies I:L over the input's I:N.

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

Primary rating from Vendor (Wordfence).

CVSS VectorVendor: Wordfence

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

DescriptionCVE.org

The Simple Membership plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of data and sensitive information disclosure in versions up to, and including, 4.8.3 via the resend-activation and email-activation endpoints. The endpoints are dispatched from SwpmInitTimeTasks::check_and_do_email_activation() on frontend init with no authentication, nonce, capability, or ownership check, and the recipient address used by SwpmRegistration::send_reg_email() is taken from an attacker-controlled $_POST['email'] parameter (overriding the member's registered address). This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to redirect an arbitrary pending member's activation email - and the follow-up 'registration complete' email containing the member's username and plaintext password - to an attacker-chosen address, and to then activate that member's account without their consent.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

The Simple Membership WordPress plugin (versions up to and including 4.8.3) contains a high-severity flaw that allows attackers to redirect activation emails to an arbitrary address, exposing pending members' usernames and plaintext passwords and enabling unauthorized account activation. Organizations using this plugin for membership sites are at risk of credential theft and account takeover, which could lead to data breaches, reputational damage, and regulatory penalties. Leadership should prioritize immediate mitigation due to the potential for widespread compromise of member accounts.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

Disable the plugin until a patch is available. If disabling is not possible, restrict access to the vulnerable endpoints (e.g., via WAF rules blocking POST requests to resend-activation and email-activation endpoints), ensure no pending unactivated member accounts exist, and monitor for unauthorized account activations. Additionally, enable logging and alerting for suspicious activity on these endpoints.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.4%
Top 71% exploitable
Prevalence
Medium
popular WordPress membership plugin, common but not on every site
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 No
EPSS 0.4%
Patch available No
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
Yes
Human Impact
High
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

38
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +38
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.

Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.

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