WordPress webmasters using the Ultimate Member plugin are invited to update to the latest version to block attacks that attempt to exploit multiple critical and easy-to-exploit vulnerabilities that could lead to hacking of these sites.
Ultimate Member is a plugin for the WordPress platform with more than 100.000 active installations and is designed to facilitate the work of the profile and the management of members.
This plugin provides support for creating websites that allow easy registration and creation of online communities, with custom privileges for various user roles.
In a report published today from Wordfence's Threat Intelligence team, threat analyst Chloe Chamberland said the three flaws security discovered by Wordfence could allow attackers to become an administrator and take over any WordPress site using a vulnerable Ultimate Member installation.
Following the revelation of the vulnerabilities, the plugin development team repaired it with the release of Ultimate Member 2.1.12 on October 29th.
One of these is considered by Wordfence to be "very critical" as it "allows initially unauthorized users to easily escalate their privileges to that of an administrator”.
"Once an attacker has administrator access to a WordPress site, it effectively occupies the entire site and can take any action, from downloading the site offline to further infecting the site with malware," Chamberland explained.
Two of the bugs received a maximum CVSS 10/10 severity rating, as an irrelevant unregistered malicious user could enter the WPO
The third was rated 9,8 / 10, as it requires access to wp-admin and the site's profile.php page, but is still considered critical as it allows any authenticated attacker to gain administrator privileges with very little effort.
Although Ultimate Member 2.1.12, the version that fixes the three vulnerabilities, was released on October 26, the new version has been installed approximately 75.000 times. This means that at least 25.000 WordPress sites with active Ultimate Member installations remain potentially exposed to attacks.
Ultimate Member users are requested to update thecase in 2.1.12 as soon as possible.