# Echo Knowledge Base – Documentation, FAQs, AI Chat & AI Search <= 17.311.0 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Missing Authorization to Arbitrary User Meta Update

- **ID:** WPSEC-2026-1233
- **Plugin:** Echo Knowledge Base – Documentation, FAQs, Chat & Smart Search (`echo-knowledge-base`), https://wordpress.org/plugins/echo-knowledge-base/
- **Affected versions:** all versions before 17.311.1
- **Fixed in:** 17.311.1 (Update to 17.311.1 or later.)
- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N)
- **Weakness:** CWE-862
- **Usage among sites WPSec scans:** plugin Low, affected versions None seen (as of 2026-10-18)
- **Attack surface analysis:** https://attacksurface.wpsec.com/plugin/echo-knowledge-base
- **Fix released:** 2026-10-17
- **Published:** 2026-10-18
- **URL:** https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-1233/

## Description

The Echo Knowledge Base plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of data in all versions up to, and including, 17.311.0 due to a missing capability check and missing nonce validation on the ajax_dismiss_ongoing_notice AJAX action. The handler also did not validate the supplied 'epkb_dismiss_id' value. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to set user meta entries with arbitrary keys to the value 1 on their own account. Because the request had no nonce, it could also be forged on behalf of a logged-in user.

## References

- https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-1233/
- https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/echo-knowledge-base/tags/17.311.1/
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/echo-knowledge-base/

Source: WPSec, https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-1233/

License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Free to use, share and adapt, also commercially, if you credit WPSec and link to this advisory.