# CVE-2026-120070: User Frontend <= 4.3.13 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation via post_content Parameter

Status: published. Published: 2026-10-31. Updated: 2026-11-06.

The User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 4.3.13 via the `post_content` parameter of the `submit_post()` function. The vulnerability exists because the protected-shortcode blocklist guard inspects the `sanitize_textarea_field()` copy of the submitted `post_content`, while the copy actually persisted to the database is processed through `wp_kses()`, whose `wp_kses_no_null()` step strips C0 control bytes — allowing an attacker to inject a single `\x01` byte inside the `[wpuf-registration]` tag name to defeat the `strpos()` blocklist check while the clean, functional shortcode is stored verbatim; `strip_shortcodes()` does not neutralize the stored shortcode either, because the Frontend container that registers it via `add_shortcode()` is only instantiated when `is_admin()` is false, and `admin-ajax` requests have `is_admin() === true`. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to inject a `[wpuf-registration role="editor"]` shortcode into a published post, causing a live Editor-role registration form to be rendered publicly on the frontend that any visitor — or the attacker themselves — can submit to mint a WordPress Editor account with an immediately active privileged session when the default `autologin_after_registration` setting is enabled.

## Remediation

No remediation reported in collected sources

## Affected products and versions

- wedevs / User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission: ≥ 0; ≤ 4.3.13 (affected, semver). Source: CNA: Wordfence

## Severity and prioritization

- CVSS 3.1: 8.8 (high); CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H; source: CNA: Wordfence

- CVSS 3.1: 8.8 (high); CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H; source: NVD: security@wordfence.com

- CISA KEV: No listing in collected sources

- EPSS: 0.30% as of 2026-11-06; percentile 23.06%

- SSVC: exploitation none; automatable no; technical impact total; source ADP: CISA-ADP

- Weaknesses: CWE-269

## Exploit evidence

No exploit evidence in collected sources. This is not proof of no exploitation.

## References

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/f84b6767-f254-45c9-8e78-36d4beac2a98?source=cve (CNA: Wordfence)

- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-frontend/tags/4.3.13/includes/Ajax/Frontend_Form_Ajax.php#L253 (CNA: Wordfence)

- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-frontend/tags/4.3.13/includes/Ajax/Frontend_Form_Ajax.php#L132 (CNA: Wordfence)

- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-frontend/tags/4.3.13/includes/Frontend/Registration.php#L116 (CNA: Wordfence)

- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-frontend/tags/4.3.13/includes/Frontend/Registration.php#L362 (CNA: Wordfence)

- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3770255/wp-user-frontend/trunk/includes/Ajax/Frontend_Form_Ajax.php (CNA: Wordfence)

- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-frontend/tags/4.3.13/includes/Ajax/Frontend_Form_Ajax.php#L132 (security@wordfence.com)

- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-frontend/tags/4.3.13/includes/Ajax/Frontend_Form_Ajax.php#L253 (security@wordfence.com)

- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-frontend/tags/4.3.13/includes/Frontend/Registration.php#L116 (security@wordfence.com)

- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-user-frontend/tags/4.3.13/includes/Frontend/Registration.php#L362 (security@wordfence.com)

- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3770255/wp-user-frontend/trunk/includes/Ajax/Frontend_Form_Ajax.php (security@wordfence.com)

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/f84b6767-f254-45c9-8e78-36d4beac2a98?source=cve (security@wordfence.com)

## Provenance

- CNA: Wordfence: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-120070; retrieved 2026-11-06; source updated 2026-11-06

- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-120070; retrieved 2026-11-02; source updated 2026-11-02

- FIRST EPSS: https://api.first.org/data/v1/epss?cve=CVE-2026-120070; retrieved 2026-11-06; source updated Not reported

Revision: 1f37f941f989c245c894e91c54da6d95815cd1f7baace062a15fd9aa7355a945

Canonical: https://y2.dev/cve/CVE-2026-120070

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