Profile Builder <= 3.16.3 - Privilege Escalation to Unauthenticated Account Takeover
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 3.16.4
- Affected Plugin
- User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor
- Affected Version
<= 3.16.3- CVSS
- 7.3High
- Weakness type
- CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management
- CVE
CVE-2026-15368
At a glance
CVE-2026-15368 is a high-severity Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in the User Profile Builder WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.16.3. It carries a CVSS score of 7.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 3.16.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2026, reported by Jakub Herman.
Vulnerability Overview
The Profile Builder plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in versions up to, and including, 3.16.3. This is due to the target user ID for auto-login after registration being passed as a user-controlled URL parameter (`uid`) with no server-side binding to the issued nonce, allowing any unauthenticated visitor to supply an arbitrary user ID alongside a self-generated valid nonce for the corresponding action. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to log in as any registered user, including administrators, by crafting an autologin URL with an arbitrary user ID, because unauthenticated WordPress nonces have no user binding and the target user ID was supplied entirely via a user-controlled URL parameter.
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.
CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management
Reaching this weakness in User Profile Builder <= 3.16.3 takes no account at all. 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 User Profile Builder the fix is 3.16.4: builds <= 3.16.3 are affected, anything from 3.16.4 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 3.16.4, or a newer patched version
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. None of that substitutes for the fix: User Profile Builder 3.16.4 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 User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor
- 9.8CVE-2026-15826: User Profile Builder <= 3.16.4 Authentication Bypass
CVE-2026-15826 - 9.8CVE-2025-15030: User Profile Builder <= 3.15.1 Privilege Escalation
CVE-2025-15030 - 9.8CVE-2024-6695: User Profile Builder Authentication Bypass
CVE-2024-6695 - 9.8CVE-2023-2297: Profile Builder Insecure Password Reset Mechanism
CVE-2023-2297 - 9.8CVE-2021-24527: Profile Builder <= 3.4.8 Admin Access
CVE-2021-24527 - 9.8Profile Builder Authentication Bypass
- 8.8CVE-2021-36915: Profile Builder CSRF
CVE-2021-36915 - 8.8Profile Builder/Profile Builder Pro <= 3.3.2 Blind SQL Injection
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C