CVE-2026-112242 in Profile Builder Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 10/22/2026
Incorrect Privilege Assignment vulnerability in Cozmoslabs Profile Builder profile-builder allows Privilege Escalation.This issue affects Profile Builder: from n/a through 4.0.4.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/22/2026
The vulnerability identified as an incorrect privilege assignment within the Cozmoslabs Profile Builder plugin, specifically affecting versions up to and including 4.0.4, represents a critical security flaw that undermines the fundamental access control mechanisms of WordPress-based websites. This issue is categorized under CWE-269, which denotes Improper Privilege Management, indicating that the software fails to properly enforce restrictions on what actions authorized users can perform or how system resources are accessed based on their assigned roles and permissions. In a typical WordPress environment, user capabilities such as editing posts, managing plugins, or accessing administrative dashboards are strictly gated by role definitions; however, this vulnerability allows an attacker with lower-level privileges to bypass these checks and execute functions reserved for higher-privileged accounts, effectively achieving privilege escalation without requiring valid credentials for those elevated roles.
From a technical perspective, the flaw likely stems from insufficient validation of user capabilities during critical operations handled by the Profile Builder plugin. When users interact with profile forms or submit data through the plugin's interface, the backend logic may fail to verify that the requesting user possesses the necessary administrative or specific capability rights before processing sensitive actions. This oversight creates a path for unauthorized modification of user profiles, potentially allowing attackers to alter their own role assignments in the database directly or indirectly through manipulated form submissions. By exploiting this misconfiguration, an attacker can elevate their status from a standard subscriber or contributor to that of an administrator, thereby gaining full control over the website's backend environment. This aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078, Valid Accounts, as it involves leveraging legitimate but improperly secured credentials to gain higher-level access within the system infrastructure.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe, particularly for websites that rely on user-generated content or membership features managed by Profile Builder. Once an attacker achieves administrative privileges through privilege escalation, they can install malicious plugins, modify core theme files, inject web shells, or exfiltrate sensitive database information containing personal identifiable information and other confidential data. The ability to manipulate the WordPress installation arbitrarily means that the integrity of the entire application is compromised, leading to potential defacement, service disruption via denial-of-service attacks, or the use of the server as a pivot point for further network intrusions. For organizations handling user profiles, this also poses significant compliance risks related to data protection regulations such as GDPR or CCPA due to the exposure of private user details and the loss of audit trails regarding who performed which actions on the system.
Mitigation strategies must focus immediately on restricting access to vulnerable components until an official patch is available from Cozmoslabs. Administrators should upgrade Profile Builder to version 4.0.5 or later, where this privilege assignment logic has been corrected to enforce strict capability checks before processing user inputs. In environments where immediate upgrading is not feasible due to compatibility constraints with other plugins or custom code modifications, temporary mitigations include restricting access to the WordPress admin area using IP whitelisting via firewall rules and ensuring that all users have strong, unique passwords to reduce the risk of credential stuffing attacks that might precede exploitation attempts. Additionally, implementing a Web Application Firewall can help detect and block anomalous requests attempting to manipulate user roles or execute unauthorized administrative functions through the plugin's endpoints. Regular security audits and monitoring for unusual changes in user role assignments are also recommended to identify potential exploitation activities early.