Paid Membership Plugin, Ecommerce, User Registration Form, Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content <= 4.17.5 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Arbitrary Shortcode Execution via Comment Content Rendered on ProfilePress User Profile 'Comments' Tab

The WP User Avatar / ProfilePress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary Shortcode Execution in versions up to, and including, 4.17.5. This is due to the get_user_profile_structure() function assembling the front-end profile buffer — which includes raw comment excerpts inlined by author_comment_query() — and passing the entire buffer to do_shortcode() after only a narrow neutralization pass (ppress_neutralize_buffer_shortcodes) that blocks pp-custom-html and bracket fragments containing HTML delimiters but leaves any other well-formed shortcode intact. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to inject arbitrary shortcodes (from any active plugin or theme) with attacker-chosen attributes by posting a comment whose body contains the shortcode markup; the shortcode is then executed server-side when any visitor loads the target's front-end profile Comments tab, letting the attacker reach capability-gated or data-returning shortcodes and inject raw HTML markup into a publicly viewable page.

Source published

16 Oct 2026 08:27:43 UTC

Source modified

16 Oct 2026 14:59:31 UTC

Observed here

23 Oct 2026 15:48:27 UTC

Source terms

CVE Program Terms of Use

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CVSS 3.1 · 5.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N