The Simple Membership plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass leading to Administrator Account Takeover in versions up to, and including, 4.8.0. This is due to improper identity verification during the public registration flow in WordPress Multisite environments, where the plugin binds new Simple Membership records to existing global WordPress users based solely on matching username and email, without requiring password verification or ownership proof, and fails to properly detect Administrator roles on child sites. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to take over Administrator accounts on child sites in a Multisite network by registering a Simple Membership account with a victim's credentials on a site where public registration is enabled, then updating the victim's global WordPress password through the profile edit functionality. The vulnerability was partially patched in version 4.8.1.
History

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 22:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Tue, 01 Sep 2026 13:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Wordpress
Wordpress wordpress
Wpinsider-1
Wpinsider-1 simple Membership
Vendors & Products Wordpress
Wordpress wordpress
Wpinsider-1
Wpinsider-1 simple Membership

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 11:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description The Simple Membership plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass leading to Administrator Account Takeover in versions up to, and including, 4.8.0. This is due to improper identity verification during the public registration flow in WordPress Multisite environments, where the plugin binds new Simple Membership records to existing global WordPress users based solely on matching username and email, without requiring password verification or ownership proof, and fails to properly detect Administrator roles on child sites. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to take over Administrator accounts on child sites in a Multisite network by registering a Simple Membership account with a victim's credentials on a site where public registration is enabled, then updating the victim's global WordPress password through the profile edit functionality. The vulnerability was partially patched in version 4.8.1.
Title Simple Membership <= 4.8.1 - Unauthenticated Authentication Bypass to Administrator Account Takeover via Multisite Identity Binding
Weaknesses CWE-287
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.3, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N'}


cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Wordfence

Published: 2026-09-01T11:31:08.578Z

Updated: 2026-09-01T17:50:13.211Z

Reserved: 2026-08-20T17:07:00.177Z

Link: CVE-2026-77194

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-09-01T17:50:08.274Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Deferred

Published: 2026-09-01T12:17:47.737

Modified: 2026-09-01T20:47:54.130

Link: CVE-2026-77194

cve-icon Redhat

No data.