Multiple E-plugins (Various Versions) - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.5.7
- Affected Plugin
- WP Membership
- Affected Version
< 1.5.7- CVSS
- 8.8High
- Weakness type
- CWE-266 · Incorrect Privilege Assignment
- CVE
CVE-2020-36666
At a glance
CVE-2020-36666 is a high-severity Incorrect Privilege Assignment vulnerability in the WP Membership WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 1.5.7. 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 Subscriber level or above. The issue is fixed in version 1.5.7; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2023, reported by Omar Badran.
Vulnerability Overview
Multiple plugins by the vendor E-plugins are vulnerable to privilege escalation due to insufficient restriction on several functions called via AJAX actions that set a user's role based on supplied role information. This makes it possible authenticated, subscriber-level and above attackers to elevate their privileges to that of an administrator.
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-266: Incorrect Privilege Assignment
A product incorrectly assigns a privilege to a particular actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.
Remediation
Update to version 1.5.7, 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: WP Membership 1.5.7 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 WP Membership
- 9.8CVE-2024-10547: WP Membership <= 1.6.2 Arbitrary File Upload
CVE-2024-10547 - 8.8CVE-2015-4038: WP Membership <= 1.2.3 Privilege Escalation
CVE-2015-4038 - 5.4CVE-2015-4039: WP Membership <= 1.2.3 Cross-Site Scripting
CVE-2015-4039 - 5.3CVE-2025-69193: Membership <= 1.6.4 Missing Authorization
CVE-2025-69193 - 4.3CVE-2025-54717: WP Membership Authenticated (Subscriber+) Settings
CVE-2025-54717
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C