CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2023-1874 — The WP Data Access plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in versions up to, and including, 5.3.7
The WP Data Access plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in versions up to, and including, 5.3.7. This is due to a lack of authorization checks on the multiple_roles_update function. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with minimal permissions such as a subscriber, to modify their user role by supplying the 'wpda_role[]' parameter during a profile update. This requires the 'Enable role management' setting to be enabled for the site.
- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 8.8 (3.1)
- Published
- 2023-04-12
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- php/wordpress
- Weaknesses
- CWE-266
Affected products
- wpdataaccess / wp_data_access
Matched remediation archetype
Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management
This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.
Check exposure
- Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
- Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
- Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.
Remediate safely
- Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
- Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
- Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.
Authoritative sources
Complete CVE record and remediation plan
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