CVE-2020-36832
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe Ultimate Membership Pro plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass in versions between, and including, 7.3 to 8.6. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to login as any user, including the site administrator with a default user ID of 1, via the username or user ID.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe Ultimate Membership Pro WordPress plugin versions 7.3 through 8.6 contain an authentication bypass vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to log in as any user on the system, including the administrator account (typically user ID 1), by manipulating the username or user ID parameter during the login process.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm plugin installationIn WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'Ultimate Membership Pro' or 'Ultimate Member' in the list. Alternatively, check the /wp-content/plugins/ directory for a folder containing 'ultimate-member' or similar naming.Affected if The plugin is found installed on the WordPress site
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Identify installed versionIn WordPress admin > Plugins, locate the Ultimate Membership Pro plugin and read the version number displayed under the plugin name. Alternatively, check the main plugin file header in /wp-content/plugins/[plugin-folder]/init.php or the primary plugin PHP file for the 'Version' comment.Affected if The version number is 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, or 8.6 (any version from 7.3 through 8.6)
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Verify user accounts existCheck if any user accounts are registered on the site. In WordPress admin > Users, confirm the presence of any user accounts. The vulnerability allows login as any existing user, particularly user ID 1 (typically the administrator).Affected if One or more user accounts exist on the WordPress site, especially if user ID 1 (administrator) is present
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Test authentication behavior (optional)If safe to do so in a non-production environment, attempt a login request with a known user ID parameter (such as logging in with username '1' or user_id=1) to observe if the authentication bypass is present. Otherwise, skip this step.Affected if The authentication system permits login without proper credentials when manipulating user ID parameters
The site is affected if the Ultimate Membership Pro plugin is installed with version 7.3 through 8.6 and any user accounts exist on the WordPress site, as unauthenticated attackers can impersonate those users.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataImmediately update the Ultimate Membership Pro plugin to version 8.7 or later. If an immediate update is not feasible, disable the plugin and implement an alternative membership solution, as this critical flaw allows full site compromise without credentials.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-36832 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-36832 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data