Medium · published September 8, 2026
Craft CMS versions 5.0.0-RC1 through 5.10.11 are missing an admin-target guard in UsersController::actionActivateUser (the users/activate-user action). While the action requires the administrateUsers permission, it does not call requireAdmin() when the targeted user is an administrator, unlike the mirror action actionDeactivateUser. As a result, an authenticated control panel user who is not an administrator but holds the administrateUsers permission can activate a pending or deliberately deactivated administrator account, which can lead to permission escalation when combined with resetting that account's password. The issue is fixed in Craft CMS 5.10.12.