WordPress security changelog
HIGH CVE-2026-12251 Deferred

Ultimate Member registration can assign a site-defined administrator role

Ultimate Member before 2.12.1 does not remove administrator-level capabilities from roles made selectable on registration forms, and its post-registration safeguard against elevated accounts is disabled by default. If a published registration form includes a role-selection field and the site has a custom role carrying administrator capabilities, an unauthenticated visitor can choose that role during registration and receive administrative access. The published.

CVE / CNA score 8.1 CVSS 3.1 · 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
NVD score Pending NVD has not published its own CVSS assessment.
Component
Ultimate Member
Plugin slug
ultimate-member
Affected
< 2.12.1
Safe version
2.12.1
Published
Jul 31, 2026
Weakness
CWE-269 — Improper Privilege Management

This CVE was published Jul 31, 2026 and is one of 60 known issues for this plugin.

Update, patch or deactivate.

Update Ultimate Member to 2.12.1 or later. Remove privileged roles from public registration forms, enable the plugin's elevated-account safeguard, review recently registered accounts for unexpected administrator capabilities, invalidate suspicious sessions, and investigate administrator actions if an unauthorized privileged account was created.

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 Ultimate Member WordPress plugin before 2.12.1 does not filter administrator-level capabilities from the roles it makes selectable on its registration forms, and its post-registration safeguard against elevated accounts is disabled by default, allowing unauthenticated users to register with a site-defined role that carries administrator capabilities and gain administrative access, when such a role exists and a role-selection field is present on a published registration form.

CVE / CNA vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Primary and upstream sources