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The Plus Addons For ElementorWordPress extension · Posimyth

CVE-2021-4331

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-03-07
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 4.1.9 or later.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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 · unedited
The Plus Addons for Elementor plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in versions up to, and including 4.1.9 (pro) and 2.0.6 (free). The plugin adds a registration form to the Elementor page builders functionality. As part of the registration form, users can choose which role to set as the default for users upon registration. This field is not hidden for lower-level users so any user with access to the Elementor page builder, such as contributors, can set the default role to administrator. Since contributors can not publish posts, only author+ users can elevate privileges without interaction via a site administrator (to approve a post).

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 confidence

The Plus Addons for Elementor plugin for WordPress contains a privilege escalation vulnerability where the user registration form includes a default role selector that is accessible to low-privileged users such as contributors. Since the role selector is not restricted by capability checks, any user with access to the Elementor page builder can configure the default registration role to Administrator, allowing them to create admin accounts and gain elevated privileges.

MitigationUpdate the Plus Addons for Elementor plugin to version 4.1.10 (pro) or 2.0.7 (free) which includes proper capability checks to restrict the default role selector to administrator-level users only.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
The Plus Addons For ElementorWordPress extension
Affected:<= 2.0.6<= 4.1.9

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify the installed version of The Plus Addons For Elementor
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and locate 'The Plus Addons For Elementor' (or 'The Plus Addons For Elementor Pro') to see the current version number. Alternatively, check the plugin header in the main plugin file.
    Affected if The installed version is 2.0.6 or lower for the free version, or 4.1.9 or lower for the pro version.
  2. Locate user registration form widgets
    Open the Elementor page builder and search for widgets named 'User Login' or 'User Registration' from The Plus Addons. Check pages or templates where these widgets have been added.
    Affected if A User Registration form widget from The Plus Addons is present on any published page or template.
  3. Inspect the default role setting in the registration form
    Edit any page containing the User Registration widget, click the widget to open its settings, and look for a 'Default Role' or 'Role' dropdown option in the form settings panel.
    Affected if The default role is set to 'Administrator' (or any high-privilege role) and this setting is visible/editable without admin-level permissions.
  4. Verify non-administrator user access to Elementor builder
    Create a test contributor or editor account, log in with those credentials, and attempt to access the Elementor page builder on a post or page that uses the registration form.
    Affected if A user with contributor-level (or similar low) privileges can access the Elementor editor and modify the registration form widget settings.

Your environment is affected if the Plus Addons for Elementor plugin version is 2.0.6 or lower (free) or 4.1.9 or lower (pro), a user registration form widget is in use, and low-privileged users can access the Elementor builder to change the default role to Administrator.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 4.1.9
Interim mitigation

Update the Plus Addons for Elementor plugin to version 4.1.10 (pro) or 2.0.7 (free) which includes proper capability checks to restrict the default role selector to administrator-level users only.

Fix this in The Plus Addons For Elementor Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,780
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,848.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-4331 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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