CVE-2026-1994
Published: 19 February 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-1994 is a critical-severity Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269) vulnerability in Wordpress (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 29.3th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and IA-5 (Authenticator Management).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-1994 is a privilege escalation vulnerability affecting the s2Member plugin for WordPress in all versions up to and including 260127. The flaw stems from the plugin's failure to properly validate a user's identity before allowing password updates, enabling unauthorized password changes. It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and is associated with CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management).
Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely over the network with low complexity and no user interaction required. By targeting the password update mechanism, they can change the passwords of arbitrary users, including administrators, thereby achieving full account takeover and potential complete compromise of the affected WordPress site.
References point to the vulnerable code in src/includes/classes/registrations.inc.php at line 74, a patch applied in changeset 3461625, and threat intelligence details from Wordfence, recommending updates to a fixed version of the s2Member plugin to mitigate the issue.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-8236
Vulnerability details
The s2Member plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation via account takeover in all versions up to, and including, 260127. This is due to the plugin not properly validating a user's identity prior to updating their password. This makes…
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it possible for unauthenticated attackers to change arbitrary user's passwords, including administrators, and leverage that to gain access to their account.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Unauthenticated exploitation of a public-facing WordPress plugin (T1190) allows arbitrary password changes, enabling privilege escalation (T1068) via account manipulation (T1098).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
IA-5 requires verifying the identity of the requester prior to changing passwords, directly preventing the unauthenticated password updates exploited in this CVE.
AC-3 enforces approved authorizations for access to system resources, mitigating the plugin's failure to validate identity before password changes.
SI-2 mandates timely remediation of identified flaws, directly addressing this plugin vulnerability through patching as recommended in the analysis.