Login Social <= 1.0.4 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Account Takeover
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- login-social
- Affected Version
<= 1.0.4- CVSS
- 9.8Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-620 · Unverified Password Change
- CVE
CVE-2026-16261
At a glance
CVE-2026-16261 is a critical-severity Unverified Password Change vulnerability in the login-social WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.0.4. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed August 2026, reported by Khaled Alenazi (Nxploited).
Vulnerability Overview
The login-social plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation via account takeover in all versions up to, and including, 1.0.4. This is due to the plugin not properly validating a user's identity prior to updating their details like their password. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to change arbitrary user's password, including administrators, and leverage that to gain access to their account.
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 privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-620: Unverified Password Change
Reaching this weakness in login-social <= 1.0.4 takes no account at all. Unverified password change means the password-update path does not require proof that the requester is the account owner.
An attacker who can reach the endpoint takes over the account outright, and the legitimate owner is locked out of it. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for login-social yet, so installs running <= 1.0.4 stay exposed until the vendor ships one.
Remediation
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
How does WordSec protect against this?
This one needs no account at all, which puts it outside what login hardening can reach; WordSec's login security narrows the account-level paths around it, and the firewall is what inspects the request itself. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C