Vulnerability · Published Aug 16, 2026 · Assigned by Wordfence
CVE-2026-18385Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content <= 4.16.19 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Arbitrary Shortcode Execution via First Name / Last Name Profile Field
Medium 5.4
In plain English
A medium-severity code injection in Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content – ProfilePress from properfraction. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.5% (higher than 45% of all known vulnerabilities).
Official description
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.
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| properfraction | Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content – ProfilePress | 0 – through 4.16.19 |
Weakness: CWE-94 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
References
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/345f3354-d2cb-4b92-a25d-9551a5992919?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-avatar/tags/4.16.19/src/ShortcodeParser/MemberDirectoryTag.php#L98
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-avatar/tags/4.16.19/src/Themes/DragDrop/MemberDirectoryListing.php#L90
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-avatar/tags/4.16.19/src/ShortcodeParser/Builder/FrontendProfileBuilder.php#L286
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-avatar/tags/4.16.19/src/Classes/RegistrationAuth.php#L170
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-avatar/tags/4.16.15/src/ShortcodeParser/MemberDirectoryTag.php#L98
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-avatar/tags/4.16.15/src/Themes/DragDrop/MemberDirectoryListing.php#L90
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-avatar/tags/4.16.15/src/ShortcodeParser/Builder/FrontendProfileBuilder.php#L286
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-avatar/tags/4.16.15/src/Classes/RegistrationAuth.php#L170
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&old=3635466%40wp-user-avatar&new=3635466%40wp-user-avatar