CVE-2025-2470: Critical Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in Service Finder Bookings Plugin for WordPress

Overview

Cybersecurity is a key concern for every organization in the digital age, especially for those who use popular platforms like WordPress for their online presence. In this regard, a critical vulnerability, termed as CVE-2025-2470, has been discovered in the Service Finder Bookings plugin for WordPress. This plugin, used by the Service Finder – Directory and Job Board WordPress Theme, is exposed to a serious risk of privilege escalation due to a lack of restriction in one of its functions. This vulnerability can potentially impact any website that uses this plugin, leading to severe data leakage or even complete system compromise.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-2470
Severity: Critical (9.8)
Attack Vector: Via web
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Complete system compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

Service Finder Bookings Plugin for WordPress | Up to and including 5.1

How the Exploit Works

The vulnerability lies in the ‘nsl_registration_store_extra_input’ function of the Service Finder Bookings plugin. This function does not have a restriction on user roles. Therefore, when a new user is registering via a social login (provided by the Nextend Social Login plugin), they can register as an account with an arbitrary role, including the role of an Administrator. This allows unauthenticated attackers to gain unauthorized access to the system with elevated privileges.

Conceptual Example Code

Below is a conceptual example of how this vulnerability could be exploited. The attacker would send a POST request to the registration endpoint with a malicious payload that includes an arbitrary role, such as Administrator.

POST /register HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{ "username": "attacker", "password": "password", "role": "administrator" }

Mitigation Guidance

The best mitigation strategy for this vulnerability would be to apply the vendor patch. However, in case the patch is not available immediately, organizations can use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) as a temporary mitigation. Regularly updating your systems and plugins, as well as conducting routine security assessments, can also help in keeping your WordPress site secure.