ProfilePress <= 4.13.1 - Limited Privilege Escalation via 'acceptable_defined_roles'
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 4.13.2
- Affected Plugin
- Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content – ProfilePress
- Affected Version
< 4.13.2- CVSS
- 7.3High
- Weakness type
- CWE-20 · Improper Input Validation
- CVE
CVE-2023-41954
At a glance
CVE-2023-41954 is a high-severity Improper Input Validation vulnerability in the Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 4.13.2. It carries a CVSS score of 7.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 4.13.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2023, reported by Revan Arifio.
Vulnerability Overview
The ProfilePress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to limited privilege escalation in versions up to, and including, 4.13.1 via the 'acceptable_defined_roles' function due to incomplete validation on a user controlled key. This can allow unauthenticated attackers to elevate their privileges to a non-administrator role during user-registration.
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.
CWE-20: Improper Input Validation
Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content < 4.13.2 carries this weakness at acceptable_defined_roles, and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Improper input validation means the application accepts input without confirming it has the form, type or range the code downstream assumes.
The concrete impact depends on where the unvalidated value lands, which is why records in this class range from cosmetic bugs to full compromise. For Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content the fix is 4.13.2: builds < 4.13.2 are affected, anything from 4.13.2 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 4.13.2, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content 4.13.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
Other vulnerabilities in Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content – ProfilePress
- 9.8CVE-2026-12497: ProfilePress <= 4.16.17 Privilege Escalation
CVE-2026-12497 - 9.8CVE-2021-34624: ProfilePress 3.0 - 3.1.3 Arbitrary File Upload
CVE-2021-34624 - 9.8CVE-2021-34622: ProfilePress 3.0 - 3.1.3 Privilege Escalation
CVE-2021-34622 - 9.8CVE-2021-34623: User Registration Privilege Escalation
CVE-2021-34623 - 9.8CVE-2021-34621: User Registration Privilege Escalation
CVE-2021-34621 - 8.8CVE-2026-13352: Paid Membership Plugin Limited Unsafe File Upload
CVE-2026-13352 - 8.1CVE-2026-3453: ProfilePress IDOR
CVE-2026-3453 - 7.3CVE-2026-19848: Paid Membership Plugin Arbitrary Shortcode Execution
CVE-2026-19848
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