Vulnerability record · CVE-2020-36155 · published 4 January 2021
CVE-2020-36155: Ultimatemember ultimate member improper privilege management vulnerability
Ultimatemember · Ultimate Member
An issue was discovered in the Ultimate Member plugin before 2.1.12 for WordPress, aka Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via User Meta. An attacker could supply an array parameter for sensitive metadata, such as the wp_capabilities user meta that defines a user's role. During the registration process, submitted registration details were passed to the update_profile function, and any metadata was accepted, e.g., wp_capabilities[administrator] for Administrator access.
Description
An issue was discovered in the Ultimate Member plugin before 2.1.12 for WordPress, aka Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via User Meta. An attacker could supply an array parameter for sensitive metadata, such as the wp_capabilities user meta that defines a user's role. During the registration process, submitted registration details were passed to the update_profile function, and any metadata was accepted, e.g., wp_capabilities[administrator] for Administrator access.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Affected products
1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.
References
| Link | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://wordpress.org/plugins/ultimate-member/#developers | Release NotesThird Party Advisory |
| https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/cf13b0f8-5815-4d27-a276-5eff8985fc0b | ExploitThird Party Advisory |
| https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2020/11/critical-privilege-escalation-vulnerabilities-affect-100k-sites-using-ultimate-me | ExploitThird Party Advisory |
| https://wordpress.org/plugins/ultimate-member/#developers | Release NotesThird Party Advisory |
| https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/cf13b0f8-5815-4d27-a276-5eff8985fc0b | ExploitThird Party Advisory |
| https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2020/11/critical-privilege-escalation-vulnerabilities-affect-100k-sites-using-ultimate-me | ExploitThird Party Advisory |
Track CVE-2020-36155 inside VULONE
Watch it alongside the ransomware crews, C2 infrastructure and forum chatter that reference it, query it through the API and pull it into your SIEM over TAXII.
Related vulnerabilities
Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2020-36155), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-26). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.
