CVEPublished 2026-07-28Modified 2026-07-291 article on news4 live referencesNVD data

CVE-2026-15992

Vulnerability data via NVD (ingested)

CVSS v3.1
8.8
HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS percentile
Description

The WP Password Policy plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to and including 3.7.1. This is due to missing authorization checks and nonce verification in the `get_user()` function of the `Module_Password_Hint` class, which unconditionally calls `WP_User::set_role()` with the attacker-supplied `role` parameter on any account resolved via `$_POST['user_login']`, without confirming the requesting user holds the capability to assign roles. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to escalate their own privileges to Administrator by submitting a crafted POST request — with `action` set to `createuser` and `role` set to `administrator` — to the password-reset form endpoint. The vulnerable code path is reachable via the `password_hint` filter hooked during the WordPress password-reset form render, meaning an attacker need only possess a valid password-reset cookie to reach the sink.

Timeline
Published 2026-07-28
Modified 2026-07-29

External references

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Shodan + Censys queries derived from NVD's CPE data. The vuln tag catches assets Shodan has explicitly linked to this CVE; the product / banner fingerprints find exposed instances even when the vuln tag was never applied (which is common).

More intel sources (5)

Known PoCs on GitHub (2)