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Improper Privilege ManagementWeakness · CWE-269

CVE-2026-1492

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-03-03
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges 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 User Registration & Membership – Custom Registration Form Builder, Custom Login Form, User Profile, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to improper privilege management in all versions up to, and including, 5.1.2. This is due to the plugin accepting a user-supplied role during membership registration without properly enforcing a server-side allowlist. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to create administrator accounts by supplying a role value during membership registration.

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 WordPress membership plugin fails to enforce a server-side allowlist for user roles during registration, allowing unauthenticated attackers to specify 'administrator' as their role and create privileged accounts.

MitigationUpdate the plugin to the latest patched version immediately. Audit existing user accounts for unauthorized administrators and remove any suspicious accounts. Consider temporarily disabling public registration until patched.

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 checks

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

  1. Identify the membership plugin version
    Check the installed plugins list in WordPress admin under Plugins > Installed Plugins, or inspect the plugin header file (usually main PHP file) for the Version comment, or use a directory listing command like 'ls -la /wp-content/plugins/' to list plugin directories
    Affected if The plugin is present and its version falls within the affected range (compare your installed version to the affected ranges)
  2. Verify public registration is enabled
    Navigate to WordPress admin Settings > General > Membership, or inspect the 'users_can_register' option in the wp_options database table via: SELECT option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_name='users_can_register';
    Affected if The 'Anyone can register' setting is enabled (users_can_register = 1)
  3. Inspect the plugin role configuration
    Check the plugin settings for role allowlist configuration, typically found in the plugin's settings page under Membership > Settings > User Roles, or inspect the plugin source code for '$allowed_roles' or 'role_whitelist' variables
    Affected if No server-side role allowlist is defined, or the allowlist includes 'administrator' as a valid registration role
  4. Review recent administrator accounts
    In WordPress admin, go to Users > All Users and sort by 'Registered' date, or query: SELECT ID, user_login, user_email, user_registered, meta_key FROM wp_users JOIN wp_usermeta ON wp_users.ID = wp_usermeta.user_id WHERE meta_key = 'wp_capabilities' AND meta_value LIKE '%administrator%' ORDER BY user_registered DESC;
    Affected if There are administrator accounts registered without manual admin creation, especially accounts created around the time the vulnerable plugin was active

A user is affected if the membership plugin with the role allowlist vulnerability is installed, public registration is enabled, and no proper server-side role restriction exists, allowing unauthorized admin account creation.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update the plugin to the latest patched version immediately. Audit existing user accounts for unauthorized administrators and remove any suspicious accounts. Consider temporarily disabling public registration until patched.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,920
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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-2026-1492 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
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