CVE-2026-110898 in Essential Addons for Elementor Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 10/19/2026
Incorrect Privilege Assignment vulnerability in WPDeveloper Essential Addons for Elementor essential-addons-for-elementor-lite allows Privilege Escalation.This issue affects Essential Addons for Elementor: from n/a through 6.8.5.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/19/2026
The vulnerability identified as an Incorrect Privilege Assignment within the WPDeveloper Essential Addons for Elementor plugin represents a critical security flaw that undermines the fundamental access control mechanisms of WordPress environments. This issue specifically affects versions ranging from the initial release up to version 6.8.5, impacting a significant portion of users who rely on this popular page builder extension suite. The core technical flaw lies in the improper validation and enforcement of user capabilities during specific administrative or frontend operations. In a properly secured application, actions that modify site configuration, manage content structure, or access sensitive data must be strictly gated by robust capability checks ensuring that only authorized roles with sufficient privileges can execute them. However, in this instance, the plugin fails to adequately verify whether the initiating request originates from an account possessing the requisite administrative rights before processing critical functions. This oversight allows attackers who have obtained even low-level credentials, such as those of a subscriber or contributor role, to bypass intended restrictions and perform actions reserved for higher-privileged users like administrators.
From a technical perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-269, which classifies Improper Privilege Management. The absence of rigorous capability verification means that the application trusts user-supplied input regarding their own permissions without cross-referencing against the WordPress core’s role and capabilities system. This typically manifests in endpoints or AJAX handlers where the plugin executes code paths intended for site management but lacks a call to functions such as current_user_can with appropriate parameters. Consequently, an authenticated attacker can craft specific HTTP requests that exploit these unchecked entry points. By manipulating request parameters, the attacker can trigger administrative actions including modifying theme settings, installing plugins, altering user roles, or injecting malicious scripts into posts and pages. This effectively elevates their privilege level from a low-privileged subscriber to a full administrator without needing to guess passwords or exploit separate authentication flaws.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe due to the widespread adoption of Elementor-based websites in both small business and enterprise contexts. Once an attacker achieves administrative access through this privilege escalation, they gain complete control over the compromised WordPress installation. This level of access enables a wide array of malicious activities beyond simple defacement or data theft. Attackers can install persistent backdoors such as web shells to maintain long-term access even if credentials are changed later. They can also exfiltrate sensitive customer data stored in the database, leading to potential regulatory violations under frameworks like GDPR or CCPA depending on the jurisdiction and nature of the data involved. Furthermore, the compromised site can be repurposed as a node in botnets for distributed denial-of-service attacks, used to distribute malware to visitors via drive-by downloads, or leveraged to launch phishing campaigns against other organizations by impersonating legitimate services. The trust associated with WordPress sites makes them particularly attractive targets for such abuse, potentially damaging the reputation of the victim organization and eroding user confidence.
In terms of threat modeling, this vulnerability facilitates lateral movement within a compromised network if multiple WordPress instances are hosted on the same server infrastructure or share backend resources. It also aligns with MITRE ATT&CK techniques related to Privilege Escalation, specifically those involving exploitation of software vulnerabilities for access escalation. The attack vector is classified as remote but requires authentication, placing it in the category of authenticated attacks that exploit misconfigurations rather than brute-force credential stuffing or zero-day exploits in core software. This makes detection slightly more complex as legitimate user activity may resemble malicious requests if behavioral analysis tools are not deployed to monitor for anomalous privilege changes.
To mitigate this risk, immediate action is required by all administrators using versions of Essential Addons for Elementor prior to 6.8.5. The primary remediation step is to update the plugin to version 6.8.5 or later, where the vendor has implemented proper capability checks and corrected the privilege assignment logic. Until an update can be applied, organizations should consider disabling the specific features or endpoints that are vulnerable if possible through configuration changes, although this may not always be feasible without breaking functionality. Additionally, implementing a Web Application Firewall with rulesets tuned to detect common WordPress exploitation patterns can provide a layer of defense in depth by blocking suspicious requests attempting to manipulate administrative functions from low-privileged accounts. It is also critical to enforce the principle of least privilege across all user roles within the WordPress installation, ensuring that no unnecessary users are granted elevated capabilities even if they were previously assigned them incorrectly. Regular auditing of user permissions and monitoring for unexpected changes in site configuration can help detect exploitation attempts early. Security teams should also ensure that server-level protections such as file permission restrictions and database access controls are tightly configured to limit the blast radius in case a compromise does occur, thereby reducing the potential impact even if an attacker successfully escalates privileges through this vulnerability.