Simple Membership: A security weakness
With automatic login after registration enabled, a newly registered user’s plaintext password is placed in a URL. It can consequently appear in browser history and server, proxy or CDN logs. An attacker needs access to one of those records to obtain the credential; this is not direct unauthenticated password retrieval. The export does not identify the URL parameter or logging configuration. Affected versions: < 4.8.3. The authoritative export identifies 4.8.3 as fixed for this CVE.
- Component
- Simple Membership
- Plugin slug
simple-membership- Affected
- < 4.8.3
- Safe version
4.8.3- Published
- Oct 11, 2026
This CVE was published Oct 11, 2026 and is one of 37 known issues for this plugin.
Update, patch or deactivate.
Update to 4.8.3 or a later supported release. Application-level remediation: Do not include passwords in URLs; use an authenticated session or a short-lived, single-use token for post-registration login. Rotate exposed passwords and restrict access to retained logs.
A safe version is available, so updating to that version or later is the preferred remediation. If an immediate update is not practical, consider a targeted application patch or temporarily restricting the affected functionality.
Deactivate only when warranted by your risk profile, or when advised by your hosting provider in the limited circumstances where the vulnerability cannot otherwise be mitigated. If you’re unsure which action is appropriate, contact Fused or your hosting provider for guidance.
Technical description
The Simple Membership WordPress plugin before 4.8.3 does not avoid transmitting a newly registered member's plaintext password in a URL query string when an optional auto-login-after-registration feature is enabled, exposing the credential in browser history and in web server, proxy, and CDN access logs to anyone able to read them.
CVE / CNA vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N