CVE-2023-50890

Ultimate Addons for Elementor <= 1.36.20 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Privilege Escalation

2023-12-26 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 1.36.21
Affected Plugin: Ultimate Addons for Elementor
Affected Version: <= 1.36.20
CVSS: 8.8High
Weakness type: CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management
CVE: CVE-2023-50890

View all Ultimate Addons for Elementor vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-50890 is a high-severity Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in the Ultimate Addons for Elementor WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.36.20. 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 Contributor level or above. The issue is fixed in version 1.36.21; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed December 2023, reported by Rafie Muhammad.

Vulnerability Overview

The Ultimate Addons for Elementor plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.36.20. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with contributor-level access and above, to register as an administrator on vulnerable sites.

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

Reaching this weakness in Ultimate Addons for Elementor <= 1.36.20 takes an account at Contributor 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 Ultimate Addons for Elementor the fix is 1.36.21: builds <= 1.36.20 are affected, anything from 1.36.21 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.36.21, 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: Ultimate Addons for Elementor 1.36.21 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-50890 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/ea4b35ef-99ae-4ef9-8618-f9993306521b https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-50890

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in Ultimate Addons for Elementor

CVSS Vector

8.8

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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