Incorrect Privilege AssignmentWeakness · CWE-266

CVE-2026-48889

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-06-15
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
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
Subscriber Privilege Escalation in Amelia <= 2.3 versions.

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 · moderate confidence

The Amelia WordPress plugin versions 2.3 and below contains a privilege escalation vulnerability allowing authenticated users with Subscriber-level permissions to elevate their privileges to higher permission levels (such as Administrator). This likely involves improper validation of user capabilities when processing certain plugin functions or AJAX actions.

MitigationUpdate Amelia plugin to a version newer than 2.3. If immediate update is not possible, disable new user registration on the site and review user accounts for unauthorized privilege escalation.

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
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. Verify Amelia plugin is installed
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'Amelia' plugin, or check the plugin files in wp-content/plugins/amelia for a version file
    Affected if Amelia plugin is not installed on the WordPress site
  2. Check installed Amelia version
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look at the version number listed under the Amelia plugin, or read the main plugin PHP file for the 'Version' header comment
    Affected if Version is 2.3 or lower (any version up to and including 2.3)
  3. Confirm WordPress user registration is enabled
    Go to WordPress Settings > General > 'Membership' setting and check if 'Anyone can register' is ticked, or query the 'users_can_register' option in the wp_options table
    Affected if User registration is enabled on the site
  4. Identify subscriber-level users with elevated roles
    Go to Users > All Users in WordPress admin and review the role column, or query wp_usermeta for users with meta_key='wp_capabilities' containing 'subscriber' but with elevated role assignments
    Affected if Any user account has Administrator or other elevated role assigned without proper authorization
  5. Audit recent role changes on user accounts
    Query the wp_usermeta table for recent changes to meta_value containing role changes, or review WordPress activity logs for user capability changes involving the Amelia plugin
    Affected if Recent unexpected role modifications exist, especially involving users who only had Subscriber role

A site is affected if Amelia plugin version 2.3 or below is installed AND WordPress user registration is enabled, allowing any authenticated subscriber to potentially escalate to Administrator privileges.

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 Amelia plugin to a version newer than 2.3. If immediate update is not possible, disable new user registration on the site and review user accounts for unauthorized privilege escalation.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,176.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-48889 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-48889 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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