{"id":59010,"date":"2025-07-10T18:28:44","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T18:28:44","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-09-16T12:32:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T18:32:23","slug":"cve-2025-5953-privilege-escalation-through-wp-human-resource-management-plugin-vulnerability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-5953-privilege-escalation-through-wp-human-resource-management-plugin-vulnerability\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-5953: Privilege Escalation through WP Human Resource Management Plugin Vulnerability<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The cybersecurity landscape is riddled with threats, vulnerabilities, and exploits. One such vulnerability that has been recently identified is CVE-2025-5953. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-6381-directory-traversal-vulnerability-in-beeteam368-extensions-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65593\">vulnerability exists in the WP Human Resource Management plugin<\/a> for WordPress, versions 2.0.0 through 2.2.17. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-6379-critical-directory-traversal-vulnerability-in-beeteam368-extensions-pro-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65600\">plugin is extensively<\/a> used in the HR sector for managing employee data, hence making it a lucrative target for attackers. The vulnerability in question allows for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52824-missing-authorization-vulnerability-in-mobile-dj-manager\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65663\">privilege escalation<\/a> due to missing authorization controls, potentially leading to a complete system compromise.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-5953<br \/>\nSeverity: High (CVSS: 8.8)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Network<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Low (Employee-level access)<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52817-authorization-bypass-in-zealousweb-abandoned-contact-form-7-leads-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65745\">Potential system<\/a> compromise or data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-449713515\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>WP Human Resource Management <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-6755-wordpress-plugin-vulnerability-leads-to-arbitrary-file-deletion\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65637\">Plugin for WordPress<\/a> | 2.0.0 &#8211; 2.2.17<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52818-critical-missing-authorization-vulnerability-in-trusty-whistleblowing\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65698\">vulnerability exists due to a lack of proper authorization<\/a> checks in the ajax_insert_employee() and update_employee() functions of the WP Human Resource Management plugin. The AJAX handler reads the client-supplied $_POST[&#8216;role&#8217;] and, after basic cleaning via hrm_clean(), passes it directly to the wp_insert_user() and later to $user->set_role() functions without verifying that the current <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-44955-critical-vulnerability-in-ruckus-network-director-allows-jail-users-to-gain-root-access\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"76101\">user is allowed<\/a> to assign that role. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Employee-level access and above, to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49747-unauthorized-privilege-elevation-in-azure-machine-learning\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"68739\">elevate their privileges<\/a> to an administrator level.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1543110193\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>The following pseudocode provides an example of how this vulnerability might be exploited:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">POST \/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php HTTP\/1.1\nHost: target.example.com\nContent-Type: application\/x-www-form-urlencoded\naction=hrm_ajax_insert_employee&amp;role=administrator<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this example, the attacker is making a POST <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53314-high-severity-cross-site-request-forgery-csrf-vulnerability-in-sh1zen-wp-optimizer\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65588\">request to the vulnerable<\/a> endpoint and changing their role to &#8216;administrator. Once the request is processed, the attacker would have administrator-level privileges, thereby <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54788-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-suitecrm-leading-to-potential-system-compromise-or-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"80248\">compromising the security of the entire system<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Recommended Mitigation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As a measure to mitigate this vulnerability, it is highly recommended that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-5821-critical-authentication-bypass-vulnerability-in-case-theme-user-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"83331\">users of the affected plugin<\/a> apply the vendor-released patch immediately. In the absence of a patch, the use of a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation. It&#8217;s also crucial to follow the principle of least privilege (PoLP) when assigning roles to users. Regular updates and rigorous testing of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-5835-droip-plugin-for-wordpress-unauthorized-access-and-modification-vulnerability\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"68952\">plugins can further strengthen the security of your WordPress<\/a> site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview The cybersecurity landscape is riddled with threats, vulnerabilities, and exploits. One such vulnerability that has been recently identified is CVE-2025-5953. This vulnerability exists in the WP Human Resource Management plugin for WordPress, versions 2.0.0 through 2.2.17. This plugin is extensively used in the HR sector for managing employee data, hence making it a lucrative [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[76],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-59010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","attack_vector-privilege-escalation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59010"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75872,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59010\/revisions\/75872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59010"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=59010"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=59010"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=59010"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=59010"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=59010"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=59010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}