Overview
A critical security vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-13559, has been discovered in the EduKart Pro plugin for WordPress. This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to escalate their privileges to administrator level, potentially leading to complete website takeover. All versions of the plugin up to and including 1.0.3 are affected.
Technical Details
The vulnerability lies within the edukart_pro_register_user_front_end function. This function fails to properly validate the user role specified during registration. An attacker can exploit this by submitting a registration request with the ‘administrator’ role. Because the function doesn’t restrict allowed roles, the attacker is granted administrator privileges upon successful registration.
CVSS Analysis
- CVE ID: CVE-2025-13559
- Severity: CRITICAL
- CVSS Score: 9.8
A CVSS score of 9.8 indicates a critical vulnerability with a high potential for exploitation and significant impact.
Possible Impact
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could have severe consequences, including:
- Complete website compromise: Attackers can gain full control of the WordPress site.
- Data theft: Sensitive data, including user information and financial records, could be stolen.
- Malware distribution: The compromised website could be used to distribute malware to visitors.
- Website defacement: The attacker could deface the website, damaging its reputation.
- Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks: The attacker could launch DoS attacks against other websites.
Mitigation and Patch Steps
The most effective way to address this vulnerability is to update the EduKart Pro plugin to the latest version as soon as a patch is available. If an update is not yet available, consider the following temporary mitigations:
- Disable the plugin: Temporarily disable the EduKart Pro plugin until an updated version is released. This will prevent exploitation of the vulnerability, but will also remove the plugin’s functionality.
- Implement a temporary workaround (advanced users only): Modify the
edukart_pro_register_user_front_endfunction to restrict the allowed user roles during registration. This requires advanced knowledge of PHP and WordPress plugin development. Warning: Incorrectly modifying plugin code can break your website. Proceed with caution and back up your website before making any changes.
Check the plugin developer’s website and WordPress plugin repository for updates and announcements regarding a patch.
