CVE-2026-18501

UsersWP <= 1.2.69 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Badge Widget Variable Substitution

2026-08-06 00:53
Jonah Burgess (CryptoCat)

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.2.70
Affected Plugin
UsersWP – Front-end login form, User Registration, User Profile & Members Directory plugin for WP
Affected Version
<= 1.2.69
CVSS
6.4Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2026-18501
View all UsersWP – Front-end login form, User Registration, User Profile & Members Directory plugin for WP vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2026-18501 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the UsersWP WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.2.69. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Subscriber level or above. The issue is fixed in version 1.2.70; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2026, reported by Jonah Burgess (CryptoCat).

Vulnerability Overview

The UsersWP – Front-end login form, User Registration, User Profile & Members Directory plugin for WP plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Badge Widget Variable Substitution in all versions up to, and including, 1.2.69 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

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.

CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

Reaching this weakness in UsersWP <= 1.2.69 takes an account at Subscriber level or above. Cross-site scripting happens when input from a request is written into a page without being escaped for the context it lands in, so the browser parses attacker-supplied text as markup or script.

Injected script runs with the privileges of whoever views the affected page, which is how these flaws turn into administrator session theft, silent account creation or persistent backdoors in page content. For UsersWP the fix is 1.2.70: builds <= 1.2.69 are affected, anything from 1.2.70 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.2.70, or a newer patched version

How WordSec helps

An attacker needs Subscriber access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: UsersWP 1.2.70 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-18501https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/98d3aa11-346e-4e1f-9c52-3b21b77b52e6https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-18501

Related records

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