CVE-2026-4297
The Welcome Software Publishing plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary Options Update in all versions up to and including 0.0.31.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.67%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
The Welcome Software Publishing plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary Options Update in all versions up to and including 0.0.31. This is due to a missing capability check in the nc_setOption() function, which is exposed via the nc.setOption XML-RPC method. The function authenticates the user via $wp_xmlrpc_server->login() (verifying credentials are valid) but does not perform any authorization check such as current_user_can('manage_options'). This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to update arbitrary WordPress options via XML-RPC requests. This can be leveraged to change the default_role option to 'administrator' and then register a new administrator account, achieving full privilege escalation and site takeover.
- 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
- 0.67% probability · 50th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-862
- Source
- security@wordfence.com
References
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/tags/0.0.31/newscred.php#L264
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/tags/0.0.31/newscred.php#L265
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/tags/0.0.31/newscred.php#L272
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/tags/0.0.31/newscred.php#L44
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/trunk/newscred.php#L264
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/trunk/newscred.php#L265
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/trunk/newscred.php#L272
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/trunk/newscred.php#L44
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/47e53fd3-4e3f-433a-8e70-3a58c864184a?source=cve
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.