Vulnerability · Published May 22, 2026 · Assigned by Wordfence

CVE-2026-9018Easy Elements for Elementor – Addons & Website Templates <= 1.4.5 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via 'custom_meta' Parameter

High 8.8

In plain English

A high-severity privilege mismanagement in Easy Elements for Elementor – Addons & Website Templates from themewant. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.7% (higher than 54% of all known vulnerabilities). Ready-made attack tooling exists: public proof-of-concept code.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)8.8High
Exploit odds (30 days)0.7%top 46.2% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack tooling1Public PoC

Official description

The Easy Elements for Elementor – Addons & Website Templates plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.4.5 via the `easyel_handle_register()` function. This is due to the `wp_ajax_nopriv_eel_register` AJAX handler iterating the attacker-controlled `custom_meta` POST array and writing every supplied key-value pair to the newly created user's meta via `update_user_meta()` without any key whitelist or blocklist, allowing the `wp_capabilities` user meta key to be overwritten after `wp_insert_user()` has already assigned a safe role. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to register a new account with full administrator-level privileges by supplying `custom_meta[wp_capabilities][administrator]=1`. Exploitation requires that user registration is enabled on the site and that at least one page exposes the Login/Register widget, which publishes the required `easy_elements_nonce` into the page DOM where it can be retrieved by any unauthenticated visitor via a simple GET request.

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
themewant Easy Elements for Elementor – Addons & Website Templates 0 – through 1.4.5

Weakness: CWE-269 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References