The WP Human Resource Management plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation due to missing authorization in the ajax_insert_employee() and update_empoyee() functions in versions 2.0.0 through 2.2.17. The AJAX handler reads the client-supplied $_POST['role'] and, after basic cleaning via hrm_clean(), passes it directly to wp_insert_user() and later to $user->set_role() without verifying that the current user is allowed to assign that role. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Employee-level access and above, to elevate their privileges to administrator.
History

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 02:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description The WP Human Resource Management plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation due to missing authorization in the ajax_insert_employee() and update_empoyee() functions in versions 2.0.0 through 2.2.17. The AJAX handler reads the client-supplied $_POST['role'] and, after basic cleaning via hrm_clean(), passes it directly to wp_insert_user() and later to $user->set_role() without verifying that the current user is allowed to assign that role. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Employee-level access and above, to elevate their privileges to administrator.
Title WP Human Resource Management 2.0.0 - 2.2.17 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Employee+) Privilege Escalation via wp_ajax_hrm_insert_employee AJAX Action
Weaknesses CWE-862
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 8.8, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}


cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Wordfence

Published: 2025-07-04T01:44:03.834Z

Updated: 2025-07-04T01:44:03.834Z

Reserved: 2025-06-09T19:08:46.265Z

Link: CVE-2025-5953

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2025-07-04T03:15:21.583

Modified: 2025-07-04T03:15:21.583

Link: CVE-2025-5953

cve-icon Redhat

No data.