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CVE-2026-18039 – Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation – Essential Addons for Elementor (5.8.6 – 6.7.

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Summary

CVE-2026-18039 is an improper privilege management vulnerability (CWE-269) affecting the Essential Addons for Elementor WordPress plugin. It allows unauthenticated attackers to register a new WordPress account with an arbitrary role, including Administrator, by abusing mass assignment of custom user profile fields during registration. The issue carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.1 (High) and affects versions from 5.8.6 up to (but not including) 6.7.2.

Technical details

  • Root cause: The plugin’s registration/custom profile field handling fails to prevent user-supplied field values from overwriting reserved, protected user account attributes (mass assignment).
  • Trigger conditions: Exploitation requires the target site to have a custom profile field configured with a specific label; when present, an unauthenticated registration request can set privileged attributes such as the account role.
  • Attack vector: Network — the attacker sends crafted registration requests to the site’s public registration endpoint without needing any prior authentication.
  • Impact: Full account takeover at the highest privilege level (Administrator), enabling complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the WordPress site.

Affected software

  • Essential Addons for Elementor (WordPress plugin), versions 5.8.6 through versions prior to 6.7.2

Severity

  • CVSS v3.1 Base Score: 8.1 (High)
  • Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate: Update Essential Addons for Elementor to version 6.7.2 or later, which remediates the mass assignment flaw.
  • If no patch can be applied immediately: Review and remove or restrict custom profile fields on user registration forms, disable open user registration where not required, and monitor for newly created accounts with elevated (Administrator) roles as an indicator of exploitation attempts.

References

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