CVE-2026-3629
Published: 21 March 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-3629 is a high-severity Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269) vulnerability in Wordpress (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 8.1 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 33.4th 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-6 (Least Privilege) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-3629 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Import and export users and customers plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 1.29.7. The issue arises in the 'save_extra_user_profile_fields' function, which does not properly restrict which user meta keys can be updated via profile fields. Specifically, the 'get_restricted_fields' method fails to include sensitive meta keys such as 'wp_capabilities', allowing unauthorized modifications during user profile operations.
Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability over the network by submitting a crafted registration request that sets the 'wp_capabilities' meta key, escalating their privileges to Administrator. Successful exploitation requires two preconditions: the "Show fields in profile" setting must be enabled, and a CSV file with a 'wp_capabilities' column header must have been previously imported. The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.1 (AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and is associated with CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management).
Advisories and references, including Wordfence threat intelligence and WordPress plugin trac links, point to specific code locations in columns.php and helper.php within the 1.29.7 tag, as well as changeset 3483330, which likely implements the fix by addressing the restricted fields logic. Security practitioners should update the plugin beyond version 1.29.7 and verify configurations to disable unnecessary profile fields.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-14256
Vulnerability details
The Import and export users and customers plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.29.7. This is due to the 'save_extra_user_profile_fields' function not properly restricting which user meta keys can be updated…
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via profile fields. The 'get_restricted_fields' method does not include sensitive meta keys such as 'wp_capabilities'. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to escalate their privileges to Administrator by submitting a crafted registration request that sets the 'wp_capabilities' meta key. The vulnerability can only be exploited if the "Show fields in profile" setting is enabled and a CSV with a wp_capabilities column header has been previously imported.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
The CVE describes an unauthenticated remote privilege escalation in a public-facing WordPress plugin via improper meta-key restrictions during registration/profile updates, directly enabling exploitation of public-facing apps (T1190) to achieve unauthorized admin-level privileges (T1068).
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Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Requires timely patching and flaw remediation for the vulnerable WordPress plugin versions up to 1.29.7, directly addressing the improper restriction of user meta keys in save_extra_user_profile_fields.
Enforces validation of information inputs during user registration and profile updates to block crafted requests that set sensitive meta keys like wp_capabilities.
Restricts privileges to the minimum necessary, preventing unauthenticated attackers from escalating to Administrator via unauthorized capability modifications.