CVE-2020-36156
An issue was discovered in the Ultimate Member plugin before 2.1.12 for WordPress, aka Authenticated Privilege Escalation via Profile Update.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (2.06%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
An issue was discovered in the Ultimate Member plugin before 2.1.12 for WordPress, aka Authenticated Privilege Escalation via Profile Update. Any user with wp-admin access to the profile.php page could supply the parameter um-role with a value set to any role (e.g., Administrator) during a profile update, and effectively escalate their privileges.
- CVSS 3.1
- 8.8 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 2.06% probability · 81th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-269
- Affected
- ultimatemember/ultimate member
- Source
- cve@mitre.org
EPSS 2.1% since 26 October 2026; no change recorded yet. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
References
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/ultimate-member/#developersRelease Notes, Third Party Advisory
- https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/dd4c4ece-7206-4788-8747-f0c0f3ab0a53Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2020/11/critical-privilege-escalation-vulnerabilities-affect-100k-sites-using-ultimate-member-plugin/Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/ultimate-member/#developersRelease Notes, Third Party Advisory
- https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/dd4c4ece-7206-4788-8747-f0c0f3ab0a53Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2020/11/critical-privilege-escalation-vulnerabilities-affect-100k-sites-using-ultimate-member-plugin/Exploit, Third Party Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.