CVE-2026-12497

HIGH

ProfilePress < 4.16.18 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Registration Role Selection

Title source: cna
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 1 public exploit for CVE-2026-12497. PoCs published by incogbyte.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This exploit demonstrates an unauthenticated privilege escalation vulnerability in ProfilePress (wp-user-avatar) <= 4.16.17, where a regex flaw in `RegistrationAuth::acceptable_defined_roles()` fails to parse single-quoted `options='...'` attributes in the `[reg-select-role]` shortcode, allowing attackers to self-assign arbitrary roles (e.g., 'editor') during registration.

Description

The Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content WordPress plugin before 4.16.18 does not consistently enforce the role restriction configured on its front-end registration role-selection field. The set of roles offered to the visitor and the set of roles the registration handler accepts are derived by two different parsers, and for some valid ways of configuring the offered roles the handler ignores the restriction and falls back to accepting any non-administrator role. Combined with the absence of a nonce on the public registration handler, this allows an unauthenticated visitor to register an account with a higher role, such as Editor or Author, than the form was configured to offer.

Exploits (1)

github WORKING POC 5 stars
by incogbyte · pythonpoc
https://github.com/incogbyte/wp-cve-exploits/tree/main/CVE-2026-12497

This exploit demonstrates an unauthenticated privilege escalation vulnerability in ProfilePress (wp-user-avatar) <= 4.16.17, where a regex flaw in `RegistrationAuth::acceptable_defined_roles()` fails to parse single-quoted `options='...'` attributes in the `[reg-select-role]` shortcode, allowing attackers to self-assign arbitrary roles (e.g., 'editor') during registration.

Classification
Working Poc 99%
Attack Type
Lpe
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: ProfilePress (wp-user-avatar) plugin <= 4.16.17 for WordPress
No auth needed
Prerequisites: A ProfilePress registration form with a `[reg-select-role]` field using single-quoted `options='...'` (e.g., `options='subscriber'`). · Target must have the vulnerable plugin version (<= 4.16.17) installed.
mistral-large-3 · analyzed Jul 30, 2026 Full analysis →

References (1)

Core 1
Core References
Exploit exploit vdb-entry technical-description
https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/bfb14acb-051c-4bcb-adfc-10a27a00dfe7/

Scores

CVSS v3 7.5
EPSS 0.0023
EPSS Percentile 14.2%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation poc
Automatable yes
Technical Impact partial

Details

CWE
CWE-269
Status published
Products (1)
None/Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content < 4.16.18
Published Jul 24, 2026
Tracked Since Jul 24, 2026