Administrator escalation via unrestricted user metadata writes
Published Jan 4, 2021 · Updated Aug 4, 2024
Privilege escalation in Ultimate Member before 2.1.12 allows remote attackers to gain WordPress Administrator access through registration. The registration flow passes submitted fields to update_profile, which iterates over arbitrary keys and writes them with update_user_meta without blocking sensitive metadata. No prior account or user interaction is required; a crafted wp_capabilities array grants control of the newly created administrator account.
Summary
What happened
Privilege escalation in Ultimate Member before 2.1.12 allows remote attackers to gain WordPress Administrator access through registration. The registration flow passes submitted fields to update_profile, which iterates over arbitrary keys and writes them with update_user_meta without blocking sensitive metadata. No prior account or user interaction is required; a crafted wp_capabilities array grants control of the newly created administrator account.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2020-36155
- Published
- Jan 4, 2021
- Updated
- Aug 4, 2024
- Vendor
- Unknown vendor
- Product
- Unknown product
- Classifications
- CWE-269, T1098
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 4, 2021CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 4, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Affected products and versions are unavailable in this record.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Public exploit references
- WPScan registration-request proof of conceptproof of concept · unverified
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Reported exploitation
- Wordfence attack-block telemetryreported exploitation
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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