CVE-2025-53428

8.8

N-Media · Simple User Registration

An incorrect privilege assignment vulnerability in the N-Media Simple User Registration plugin allows authenticated users to elevate their privileges to unauthorized levels.

Executive summary

A critical privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the N-Media Simple User Registration plugin for WordPress, potentially allowing authenticated attackers to gain unauthorized administrative access.

Vulnerability

The flaw, categorized as CWE-266, involves an incorrect privilege assignment within the registration process. An authenticated user can leverage this vulnerability to gain higher privileges than intended, effectively bypassing established access control mechanisms.

Business impact

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability allows an attacker to escalate privileges, which can result in full administrative control over the WordPress environment. Given the CVSS score of 8.8, this constitutes a high-severity risk that could lead to complete data compromise, unauthorized modification of site content, and potential site-wide disruption.

Remediation

Immediate Action: Monitor the vendor website for the release of a patched version of the Simple User Registration plugin and apply the update immediately upon availability.

Proactive Monitoring: Review WordPress user account logs and audit administrative access changes to identify any unauthorized privilege modifications or suspicious user creations.

Compensating Controls: Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with rules configured to detect and block suspicious registration-related requests, while temporarily disabling user registration features if the plugin is not mission-critical.

Exploitation status

Public Exploit Available: exploit_available (false)

Analyst recommendation

Organizations utilizing the N-Media Simple User Registration plugin must prioritize this vulnerability due to the significant risk of privilege escalation. Security teams should restrict registration capabilities and audit existing user roles until a vendor-supplied patch is successfully deployed to remediate the underlying flaw.

Sources

Originally found and disclosed by Peter Thaleikis | Patchstack Bug Bounty Program, per the CVE Program record.