CVE-2026-16149Security Hardener <= 2.4.4 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation via REST API '/wp/v2/users' permission_callback Overwrite
- 8.8HighCVSS base score
- 0.59%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 51% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
The Security Hardener plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Missing Authorization in all versions up to, and including, 2.4.4. The vulnerability exists because the plugin's user-enumeration protection, which is enabled by default, hooks the rest_endpoints filter via secure_user_endpoints() and overwrites every registered handler's permission_callback on both the /wp/v2/users and /wp/v2/users/(?P<id>[\d]+) routes — including POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE handlers — with a bare closure that returns only is_user_logged_in(), completely stripping WordPress Core's original capability checks such as create_users, promote_user, edit_users, and delete_users that WP_REST_Users_Controller normally enforces. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with Subscriber-level access and above to create new Administrator accounts by sending POST request to /wp/v2/users with administrator role, or to reset an existing Administrator's password by issuing a PUT/POST request to /wp/v2/users/<id>. Because the block_user_enum option defaults to enabled, no special plugin configuration is required — the overwrite is active on every request as soon as the plugin is installed.
Timeline
ID reserved
By Wordfence
- 36 days later
· 36 days later
Published
- 2 days later
· 2 days later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordfenceCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High8.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 3.1 | High8.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.59% · top 51% of all CVEs (15 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.8.
Affected products
- affected ≤ 2.4.4
References
References8
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/64f1a71f-e210-4191-bfb4-56f8568180ed?source=cve (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L107 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L180 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L204 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L428 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L433 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L439 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3630896/security-hardener (opens in a new tab)
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-64605 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-16149)Record last updated .