CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-25032 — Publishpress Capabilities security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8

The PublishPress Capabilities WordPress plugin before 2.3.1, PublishPress Capabilities Pro WordPress plugin before 2.3.1 does not have authorisation and CSRF checks when updating the plugin's settings via the init hook, and does not ensure that the options to be updated belong to the plugin. As a result, unauthenticated attackers could update arbitrary blog options, such as the default role and make any new registered user with an administrator role.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.1)
Published
2022-01-10
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
php/wordpress
Weaknesses
CWE-352, CWE-862

Affected products

  • publishpress / capabilities

Showing 1 representative product identities from 2 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Authorization bypass, IDOR, and cross-tenant access

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Check exposure

  • Map object and action authorization checks across API, UI, batch, import/export, and background-job paths.
  • Identify tenant, ownership, role, and policy boundaries for affected resources and administrative operations.
  • Use synthetic fixtures to compare intended access matrices without accessing another user's real data.

Remediate safely

  • Enforce server-side authorization at each resource access and state transition using the authenticated principal and trusted tenant context.
  • Scope data queries by tenant and ownership; treat client-supplied identifiers, roles, and policy claims as untrusted.
  • Add deny-by-default policy tests for horizontal and vertical access across every affected transport.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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