User Profile Builder <= 4.0.3 — Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation to 'role' Parameter via Legacy Meta-Name Collision on [wppb-register]

Am I affected?

• Check your version: in wp-admin go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and read the version under User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor.
• No admin access? Run a passive check of your site. It reads public files only.
• No account is needed to exploit this. Treat any exposed site on an affected version as at risk.

What to do

1. Update to version 4.0.4, or a newer patched version
2. Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.
3. Watch User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor to get an email when the next vulnerability is published.

Advisory

Source description from Wordfence Intelligence, credited to Supakiad S. (m3ez).

The User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 4.0.3 via the `role` parameter handled by the `wppb_add_meta_to_user_on_activation()` function. The vulnerability exists because the activation handler passes the attacker-supplied role value directly to `WP_User::set_role()` with no allow-list validation, and the 4.0.3 reserved-name check exempts pre-existing form fields from the block, allowing a legacy field with meta-name `role` to persist and bridge attacker-controlled request input into the serialized signup record stored in `wp_signups`. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to gain a fully activated WordPress administrator account by submitting `role=administrator` through the public `[wppb-register]` shortcode form and subsequently clicking the confirmation activation link. Exploitation requires the site to have a legacy form field with meta-name `role` carried over from before the 4.0.3 upgrade, email confirmation enabled, and open user registration — all stable site-state conditions once established.

Exploits & references

Proof-of-concept & detection

No public proof-of-concept or detection template is known for this vulnerability.

Advisories & patches

• Advisorywordfence.com

Related CVEs

Timeline

1. Oct 15, 2026

   CVE published

   Severity high, CVSS 8.1

2. Nov 13, 2026

   Record last updated