ProfilePress Plugin up to 4.16.19 on WordPress Shortcode do_shortcode escape output

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in ProfilePress Plugin up to 4.16.19 and classified as critical. Affected is the function do_shortcode of the component Shortcode Handler. This manipulation causes escape output. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2026-18385. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in ProfilePress Plugin up to 4.16.19. It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function do_shortcode of the component Shortcode Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a escape output vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-116. The product prepares a structured message for communication with another component, but encoding or escaping of the data is either missing or done incorrectly. As a result, the intended structure of the message is not preserved. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

The The Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content – ProfilePress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary shortcode execution in all versions up to, and including, 4.16.19. This is due to the software allowing users to execute an action that does not properly validate a value before running do_shortcode. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to execute arbitrary shortcodes. The partial mitigation introduced via strip_shortcodes() on [profile-first-name] and [profile-last-name] can be bypassed through the [profile-display-name format="first_last_names"] render path, the [profile-bio] render path (which re-fetches the raw description meta), and the double-bracket escape sequence [[tag]], all of which allow attacker-controlled shortcode text to reach the outer do_shortcode() call.

The advisory is shared at wordfence.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-18385 since 07/30/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 08/16/2026).

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• WordPress Plugin

Name

• ProfilePress Plugin

Version

• 4.16.0
• 4.16.1
• 4.16.2
• 4.16.3
• 4.16.4
• 4.16.5
• 4.16.6
• 4.16.7
• 4.16.8
• 4.16.9
• 4.16.10
• 4.16.11
• 4.16.12
• 4.16.13
• 4.16.14
• 4.16.15
• 4.16.16
• 4.16.17
• 4.16.18
• 4.16.19

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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• 🔒

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If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

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