Unauthenticated privilege escalation via unbound membership tier
Published Jul 17, 2026 · Updated Jul 17, 2026
Privilege escalation in WPEverest User Registration & Membership before 5.2.3 allows remote attackers to create accounts with elevated roles. The public registration handler accepts members_data.membership independently of the tier displayed and allowed by the form, then assigns the submitted tier's WordPress role. Exploitation requires the Membership module, a published off-form tier with a privileged role, and a reachable public registration form; an Administrator tier yields a new Administrator account.
Summary
What happened
Privilege escalation in WPEverest User Registration & Membership before 5.2.3 allows remote attackers to create accounts with elevated roles. The public registration handler accepts members_data.membership independently of the tier displayed and allowed by the form, then assigns the submitted tier's WordPress role. Exploitation requires the Membership module, a published off-form tier with a privileged role, and a reachable public registration form; an Administrator tier yields a new Administrator account.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-11961
- Published
- Jul 17, 2026
- Updated
- Jul 17, 2026
- Vendor
- WPEverest
- Product
- User Registration & Membership
- Classifications
- CWE-269, T1098
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jul 17, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jul 17, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=0 <5.2.3
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
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-tier privilege-escalation proof of conceptfunctional · validated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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