Privilege escalation in Themewant Easy Elements For Elementor – Addons & Website Templates

CVE-2026-9018

The Easy Elements for Elementor – Addons & Website Templates plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.4.5 via the `easyel_handle_register()` function. This is due to the `wp_ajax_nopriv_eel_register` AJAX handler iterating the attacker-controlled `custom_meta` POST array and writing every supplied key-value pair to the newly created user's meta via `update_user_meta()` without any key whitelist or blocklist, allowing the `wp_capabilities` user meta key to be overwritten after `wp_insert_user()` has already assigned a safe role. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to register a new account with full administrator-level privileges by supplying `custom_meta[wp_capabilities][administrator]=1`. Exploitation requires that user registration is enabled on the site and that at least one page exposes the Login/Register widget, which publishes the required `easy_elements_nonce` into the page DOM where it can be retrieved by any unauthenticated visitor via a simple GET request.

Vulnerability class: Privilege Escalation

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 8.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.008 (55.1th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 55th percentile — 55.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-9018: held from 0.005 to 0.008.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.008 · change: +0.003

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-9018?
CVE-2026-9018 is a high-severity vulnerability in Themewant Easy Elements For Elementor – Addons & Website Templates, classified under Improper Privilege Management. CVSS score: 8.8/10. Published 2026-05-22.
How severe is CVE-2026-9018?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2026-9018 known to be exploited?
1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.