The Read More & Accordion WordPress plugin contains a critical privilege escalation vulnerability that allows authenticated users to gain unauthorized administrative privileges.

This plugin suffers from an improper privilege management flaw (CWE-269). The vulnerability is exploitable by an authenticated user with low-level access, who can leverage the flaw to perform unauthorized actions or gain elevated permissions.

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability allows an attacker to escalate privileges to an administrative level, resulting in a full system compromise of the WordPress site. With a CVSS score of 8.8, the risk is severe, as it enables unauthorized data access, modification of site content, and potential execution of arbitrary code, leading to significant reputational and operational damage.

Immediate Action: As no patch is currently available, administrators should immediately deactivate and remove the Read More & Accordion plugin from their WordPress environment until a vendor-supplied update is released.

Proactive Monitoring: Monitor WordPress user role change logs and audit server access logs for anomalous activity originating from low-privileged user accounts.

Compensating Controls: Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with rules configured to block suspicious requests directed at the plugin’s AJAX endpoints.

Public Exploit Available: No

Given the critical nature of privilege escalation, the lack of a patched version necessitates immediate removal of the affected software. Security teams should prioritize identifying all instances of this plugin and ensuring they are disabled until the developer provides a secure update.