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

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.

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 4.0.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

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