Import and export users and customers <= 2.0.8 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation via Multisite Capability Meta Fields
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.0.9
- Affected Plugin
- Import and export users and customers
- Affected Version
<= 2.0.8- CVSS
- 8.8High
- Weakness type
- CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management
- CVE
CVE-2026-7641
At a glance
CVE-2026-7641 is a high-severity Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in the Import and export users and customers WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.0.8. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Subscriber level or above. The issue is fixed in version 2.0.9; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2026, reported by kiemtiendinhau.
Vulnerability Overview
The Import and export users and customers plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to and including 2.0.8 via the `save_extra_user_profile_fields()` function. This is due to an incomplete blocklist that correctly restricts capability meta keys for the primary site (e.g., `wp_capabilities`, `wp_user_level`) but fails to block the equivalent meta keys for any other subsite in a WordPress Multisite network (e.g., `wp_2_capabilities`, `wp_2_user_level`), allowing these keys to pass the `in_array()` check and be written directly to user meta via `update_user_meta()`. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to escalate their privileges to Administrator on any subsite within the Multisite network by submitting a crafted profile update to `/wp-admin/profile.php`. Exploitation requires that an administrator has previously imported a CSV file containing multisite-prefixed capability column headers and has enabled the 'Show fields in profile?' option, which causes those keys to be stored in the `acui_columns` option and exposed as editable fields on the user profile page.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management
Import and export users and customers <= 2.0.8 carries this weakness at save_extra_user_profile_fields(), and reaching it takes an account at Subscriber level or above. Improper privilege management means the code lets an account end up with capabilities its role should not have.
It converts a low-privileged account into an administrative one, which makes every other restriction on the site irrelevant. For Import and export users and customers the fix is 2.0.9: builds <= 2.0.8 are affected, anything from 2.0.9 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.0.9, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: Import and export users and customers 2.0.9 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
Other vulnerabilities in Import and export users and customers
- 8.8CVE-2019-15329: Import and export users and customers <= 1.14.0.2 CSRF
CVE-2019-15329 - 8.0CVE-2022-3558: Import and export users and customers CSV Injection
CVE-2022-3558 - 7.5CVE-2019-15326: Import and export users… Directory Traversal
CVE-2019-15326 - 7.3CVE-2020-22277: Import and export users and customers CSV injection
CVE-2020-22277 - 7.2CVE-2024-32817: Import and export users… PHP Object Injection
CVE-2024-32817 - 6.6CVE-2023-6583: Import and export users… Directory Traversal
CVE-2023-6583 - 6.3CVE-2019-14683: Import and export users and customers CSRF
CVE-2019-14683 - 6.1CVE-2019-15327: Import and export users and customers <= 1.14.1.2 XSS
CVE-2019-15327
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