CVE-2026-4297Welcome Software Publishing <= 0.0.31 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Arbitrary Options Update to Privilege Escalation via 'nc.setOption' XML-RPC Method
- 8.8HighCVSS base score
- 0.67%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 47% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
The Welcome Software Publishing plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary Options Update in all versions up to and including 0.0.31. This is due to a missing capability check in the nc_setOption() function, which is exposed via the nc.setOption XML-RPC method. The function authenticates the user via $wp_xmlrpc_server->login() (verifying credentials are valid) but does not perform any authorization check such as current_user_can('manage_options'). This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to update arbitrary WordPress options via XML-RPC requests. This can be leveraged to change the default_role option to 'administrator' and then register a new administrator account, achieving full privilege escalation and site takeover.
Timeline
ID reserved
By Wordfence
- 3 months later
· 3 months later
Published
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)
- 0.67% · top 47% of all CVEs (12 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
newscred · Welcome Software Publishing
- affected ≤ 0.0.31
References
References9
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/47e53fd3-4e3f-433a-8e70-3a58c864184a?source=cve (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/trunk/newscred.php#L272 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/tags/0.0.31/newscred.php#L272 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/trunk/newscred.php#L264 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/tags/0.0.31/newscred.php#L264 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/trunk/newscred.php#L265 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/tags/0.0.31/newscred.php#L265 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/trunk/newscred.php#L44 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/newscred-publishing/tags/0.0.31/newscred.php#L44 (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-2026-38664 (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-2026-4297)Record last updated .