{"id":"CVE-2025-5953","state":"PUBLISHED","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","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.","publishedAt":"2025-07-04T01:44:03.834Z","updatedAt":"2025-07-08T14:21:48.349Z","severity":{"score":8.8,"label":"High","version":"3.1","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","source":"Wordfence"},"assigner":"Wordfence","products":["asaquzzaman WP Human Resource Management"],"affected":[{"vendor":"asaquzzaman","product":"WP Human Resource Management","defaultStatus":"unaffected","versions":[{"version":"2.0.0","status":"affected","lessThanOrEqual":"2.2.17","versionType":"semver"}]}],"references":["https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/3ba33a18-429f-4a3e-b018-bdfbbe6e8482?source=cve","https://wordpress.org/plugins/hrm/#developers","https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/hrm/tags/2.2.17/class/employee.php#L89","https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/hrm/tags/2.2.17/class/employee.php#L543","https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/hrm/tags/2.2.17/class/employee.php#L591"],"weaknesses":["CWE-862"],"ingestedAt":"2026-10-29T20:09:39.787Z","source":{"repository":"CVEProject/cvelistV5","path":"cves/2025/5xxx/CVE-2025-5953.json","commit":"556c9d3a8cd17e218bb8e452ba7cd619a384ff47"},"raw":{"dataType":"CVE_RECORD","dataVersion":"5.1","cveMetadata":{"cveId":"CVE-2025-5953","state":"PUBLISHED","datePublished":"2025-07-04T01:44:03.834Z","dateUpdated":"2025-07-08T14:21:48.349Z","assignerShortName":"Wordfence","assignerOrgId":"b15e7b5b-3da4-40ae-a43c-f7aa60e62599","dateReserved":"2025-06-09T19:08:46.265Z"},"containers":{"cna":{"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","descriptions":[{"lang":"en","value":"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."}],"affected":[{"vendor":"asaquzzaman","product":"WP Human Resource Management","defaultStatus":"unaffected","versions":[{"version":"2.0.0","status":"affected","lessThanOrEqual":"2.2.17","versionType":"semver"}]}],"references":[{"url":"https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/3ba33a18-429f-4a3e-b018-bdfbbe6e8482?source=cve"},{"url":"https://wordpress.org/plugins/hrm/#developers"},{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/hrm/tags/2.2.17/class/employee.php#L89"},{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/hrm/tags/2.2.17/class/employee.php#L543"},{"url":"https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/hrm/tags/2.2.17/class/employee.php#L591"}],"metrics":[{"cvssV3_1":{"version":"3.1","vectorString":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","baseScore":8.8,"baseSeverity":"HIGH"}}],"problemTypes":[{"descriptions":[{"cweId":"CWE-862","lang":"en","description":"CWE-862 Missing Authorization","type":"CWE"}]}],"providerMetadata":{"shortName":"Wordfence","orgId":"b15e7b5b-3da4-40ae-a43c-f7aa60e62599","dateUpdated":"2025-07-04T01:44:03.834Z"},"credits":[{"lang":"en","type":"finder","value":"Kenneth Dunn"}],"timeline":[{"time":"2025-07-03T12:17:43.000Z","lang":"en","value":"Disclosed"}]},"adp":[{"title":"CISA ADP Vulnrichment","metrics":[{"other":{"type":"ssvc","content":{"timestamp":"2025-07-08T14:21:37.475644Z","id":"CVE-2025-5953","options":[{"Exploitation":"none"},{"Automatable":"no"},{"Technical Impact":"total"}],"role":"CISA Coordinator","version":"2.0.3"}}}],"providerMetadata":{"shortName":"CISA-ADP","orgId":"134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0","dateUpdated":"2025-07-08T14:21:48.349Z"}}]}}}