CVE-2026-86583 — Import and export users and customers

What is CVE-2026-86583?

The Import and export users and customers plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 2.4.17 via the plugin's own export and re-import workflow. The vulnerability exists because the exporter writes CSV cells using fputcsv() with a NUL byte (\0) as the escape character, while the importer parses the same file using SplFileObject::fgetcsv() with only a single delimiter argument, causing PHP's default backslash escape character to be applied instead; because the export column layout places display_name immediately before the role column and nickname immediately after, an attacker can store crafted values in those two profile fields — saved by WordPress core via the standard profile page — such that the escape mismatch causes the parser to merge the display_name cell into the role field and rebalance the column count via nickname, yielding administrator as the parsed role for their own row when it reaches the import_user function's add_role function. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with Subscriber-level access or above to escalate their privileges to Administrator. Exploitation requires a site administrator to trigger the plugin's documented export re-import migration with both "Update existing users" and "Update roles for existing users" set to "yes".

The record classifies CVE-2026-86583 under weakness class CWE-266. Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw is reachable remotely over the network, needs low-privilege credentials, needs no user interaction, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability. 1 affected-product entry is recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 12 days ago.

Severity and exploitation probability

CVSS v3.1 base score: 8.8 — HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS (FIRST): 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 23.9% of all scored CVEs
CISA KEV: Not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
Threadlinqs priority: 5.4/10 — a Threadlinqs composite of the CVSS base score, the EPSS percentile and public exploit availability
Published: 2026-09-23, last modified 2026-09-24

Is CVE-2026-86583 being exploited?

It currently carries a trending score of 35 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.

Affected products and versions

carazo: Import and export users and customers

How to fix CVE-2026-86583

No vendor patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2026-86583 in the tracked sources. Follow the references below for a fix, and treat the products listed above as exposed until the vendor states otherwise.

Threat activity tracking CVE-2026-86583

No threat campaign in the Threadlinqs corpus currently references CVE-2026-86583, in its CVE list or as an indicator. The linkage is recomputed from the live corpus on every daily ingest, so this section fills in as soon as a tracked campaign cites the identifier.

Sources

Enriched from CVE.org, NVD, FIRST EPSS. Last verified by Threadlinqs on 2026-09-25. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

Other references

Showing 5 of 7 recorded references.

CVE-2026-86583 — carazo Import and export users and customers