{"id":"CVE-2026-16149","url":"https://www.cyber-defence.io/tools/cve/CVE-2026-16149","generatedAt":"2026-10-28T02:12:06.098Z","title":"The Security Hardener plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Missing Authorization in all versions up to, and including, 2.4.4.","description":"The Security Hardener plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Missing Authorization in all versions up to, and including, 2.4.4. The vulnerability exists because the plugin's user-enumeration protection, which is enabled by default, hooks the rest_endpoints filter via secure_user_endpoints() and overwrites every registered handler's permission_callback on both the /wp/v2/users and /wp/v2/users/(?P<id>[\\d]+) routes — including POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE handlers — with a bare closure that returns only is_user_logged_in(), completely stripping WordPress Core's original capability checks such as create_users, promote_user, edit_users, and delete_users that WP_REST_Users_Controller normally enforces. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with Subscriber-level access and above to create new Administrator accounts by sending POST request to /wp/v2/users with administrator role, or to reset an existing Administrator's password by issuing a PUT/POST request to /wp/v2/users/<id>. Because the block_user_enum option defaults to enabled, no special plugin configuration is required — the overwrite is active on every request as soon as the plugin is installed.","published":"2026-08-23T00:16:50.000Z","lastModified":"2026-10-12T16:10:00.000Z","status":"Deferred","sourceIdentifier":"security@wordfence.com","cvss":{"version":"3.1","score":8.8,"severity":"HIGH","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"},"cwe":["CWE-269"],"affected":[],"epss":{"score":0.00591,"percentile":0.47976,"date":"2026-10-26","history":[]},"kev":{"listed":false},"exploits":{"count":0,"verified":false,"firstPublished":null,"source":"Exploit-DB (https://gitlab.com/exploit-database/exploitdb)","entries":[]},"verdict":{"level":"high","text":"High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.59%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit."},"changes":[],"references":[{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L107","source":"security@wordfence.com"},{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L180","source":"security@wordfence.com"},{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L204","source":"security@wordfence.com"},{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L428","source":"security@wordfence.com"},{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L433","source":"security@wordfence.com"},{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L439","source":"security@wordfence.com"},{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3630896/security-hardener","source":"security@wordfence.com"},{"url":"https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/64f1a71f-e210-4191-bfb4-56f8568180ed?source=cve","source":"security@wordfence.com"}],"sources":{"nvd":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-16149","epss":"https://www.first.org/epss/","kev":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","exploitdb":"https://www.exploit-db.com/"},"licence":"CC BY 4.0 — link back to the CVE Explorer if you publish the results; upstream data remains subject to its own terms."}