Overview
CVE-2025-13534 is a medium severity privilege escalation vulnerability found in the ELEX WordPress HelpDesk & Customer Ticketing System plugin for WordPress. This vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 3.3.2. It allows authenticated attackers with Contributor-level access (or higher) to escalate their privileges to full helpdesk administrator capabilities, potentially leading to unauthorized access to sensitive customer data and the ability to modify critical plugin settings.
Technical Details
The vulnerability exists due to missing authorization checks on the eh_crm_edit_agent AJAX action. A user with Contributor or higher roles, who normally have limited “Reply Tickets” permissions within the helpdesk system, can exploit this lack of authorization. By crafting a malicious request to the eh_crm_edit_agent action, they can modify their user role to an administrator role within the helpdesk system. This bypasses the intended role-based access control mechanisms within the plugin.
The vulnerable code can be observed in the following file (example from version 3.3.2):
Similar issue exits in:
CVSS Analysis
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) score for CVE-2025-13534 is 6.3 (MEDIUM).
This score reflects the following characteristics:
- Attack Vector (AV): Network (N)
- Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L)
- Privileges Required (PR): Low (L) – Authenticated users (Contributor or higher)
- User Interaction (UI): None (N)
- Scope (S): Unchanged (U)
- Confidentiality Impact (C): Low (L)
- Integrity Impact (I): Low (L)
- Availability Impact (A): Low (L)
Possible Impact
Successful exploitation of CVE-2025-13534 can have significant consequences:
- Unauthorized Access to Customer Data: Attackers can access sensitive customer information stored within the helpdesk system, potentially leading to data breaches and privacy violations.
- Modification of Helpdesk Settings: Attackers can modify critical helpdesk settings, potentially disrupting service and compromising security.
- Agent Administration: Attackers can create, modify, or delete agent accounts, potentially granting unauthorized access to other malicious actors or disrupting legitimate agent operations.
- Ticket Management: Attackers can view, modify, or delete tickets, potentially interfering with customer support operations and hiding their malicious activity.
Mitigation and Patch Steps
The recommended mitigation is to update the ELEX WordPress HelpDesk & Customer Ticketing System plugin to the latest version. Check the WordPress plugin repository or the ELEX website for available updates. Ensure the updated version includes proper authorization checks for the eh_crm_edit_agent AJAX action.
If an update is not immediately available, consider temporarily disabling the plugin until a patched version is released. While this will disable the helpdesk functionality, it will prevent potential exploitation of the vulnerability.
