Improper privilege management in marc4 Security Hardener
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Privilege escalation
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- No fix listed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-269.
Summary
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.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Total
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
No fixed version listed by the sources yet.
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-16149
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-493r-g3qv-5457
References
Other 8
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/64f1a71f-e210-4191-bfb4-56f8568180ed?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L107
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L180
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L204
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L428
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L433
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/security-hardener/tags/2.4.4/security-hardener.php#L439
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3630896/security-hardener
Sources
- CVE-2026-16149 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-16149 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-493r-g3qv-5457 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
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