Simple Membership <= 4.8.3 - Missing Authorization to Unauthenticated Account Takeover and Sensitive Information Disclosure via 'email' Parameter on Activation Endpoints
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 4.8.4
- Affected Plugin
- Simple Membership
- Affected Version
<= 4.8.3- CVSS
- 7.5High
- Weakness type
- CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
- CVE
CVE-2026-97337
At a glance
CVE-2026-97337 is a high-severity Missing Authorization vulnerability in the Simple Membership WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 4.8.3. It carries a CVSS score of 7.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 4.8.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2026, reported by Kuba.
Vulnerability Overview
The Simple Membership plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of data and sensitive information disclosure in versions up to, and including, 4.8.3 via the resend-activation and email-activation endpoints. The endpoints are dispatched from SwpmInitTimeTasks::check_and_do_email_activation() on frontend init with no authentication, nonce, capability, or ownership check, and the recipient address used by SwpmRegistration::send_reg_email() is taken from an attacker-controlled $_POST['email'] parameter (overriding the member's registered address). This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to redirect an arbitrary pending member's activation email — and the follow-up 'registration complete' email containing the member's username and plaintext password — to an attacker-chosen address, and to then activate that member's account without their consent.
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.
CWE-862: Missing Authorization
Simple Membership <= 4.8.3 carries this weakness at email, and reaching it takes no account at all. A missing authorization check means a function is reachable by anyone who can reach the endpoint, because the code never asks whether the caller is allowed to perform the action.
Any user who can reach the endpoint gets to run an action reserved for higher-privileged roles, from reading protected data to changing settings or content. For Simple Membership the fix is 4.8.4: builds <= 4.8.3 are affected, anything from 4.8.4 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 4.8.4, 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: Simple Membership 4.8.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
- 5.3CVE-2026-66712: Simple Membership <= 4.7.8 Missing Authorization
CVE-2026-66712 - 5.3CVE-2026-15930: Simple Membership <= 4.7.7 Missing Authorization
CVE-2026-15930 - 5.3CVE-2026-12093: Simple Membership Unauthenticated Arbitrary Member
CVE-2026-12093 - 5.3CVE-2026-34886: Simple Membership <= 4.7.1 Missing Authorization
CVE-2026-34886
Other vulnerabilities in Simple Membership
- 9.8CVE-2022-2317: Simple Membership Membership Privilege Escalation
CVE-2022-2317 - 8.8CVE-2023-41956: Simple Membership <= 4.3.4 Account Takeover
CVE-2023-41956 - 8.8CVE-2022-2273: Simple Membership Membership Privilege Escalation
CVE-2022-2273 - 8.8CVE-2022-0328: Simple Membership CSRF to Arbitrary Member Deletion
CVE-2022-0328 - 8.8CVE-2019-14328: Simple Membership <= 3.8.4 Cross-Site Request Forgery
CVE-2019-14328 - 8.8CVE-2016-10884: Simple Membership <= 3.3.2 Multiple CSRF
CVE-2016-10884 - 7.3CVE-2023-41957: Simple Membership <= 4.3.4 Privilege escalation
CVE-2023-41957 - 7.2CVE-2026-15931: Simple Membership <= 4.7.7 Stored Cross-Site Scripting
CVE-2026-15931
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C