Overview
A critical security vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-13342, has been discovered in the Frontend Admin plugin by DynamiApps for WordPress. This vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 3.28.20. It allows unauthenticated attackers to remotely modify sensitive WordPress options. If you are using this plugin, it is imperative that you update to the latest version immediately.
Technical Details
The vulnerability stems from insufficient capability checks and lack of input validation within the ActionOptions::run() save handler. This function, responsible for saving frontend form data, fails to adequately verify user permissions or sanitize input. As a result, an unauthenticated attacker can craft malicious form data and submit it via public frontend forms to modify crucial WordPress options.
Specifically, attackers can exploit this vulnerability to change options such as:
users_can_register: Enabling user registration, potentially allowing malicious actors to create accounts.default_role: Changing the default role assigned to new users, potentially granting administrative privileges to malicious accounts.admin_email: Modifying the administrator email address, potentially hijacking the WordPress installation.
CVSS Analysis
- CVE ID: CVE-2025-13342
- Severity: CRITICAL
- CVSS Score: 9.8
- Vector String (Illustrative, may not be official): CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
A CVSS score of 9.8 indicates a critical vulnerability. It means the attacker doesn’t need any privileges and the attack complexity is low, allowing for high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the WordPress site.
Possible Impact
The potential impact of this vulnerability is severe. Successful exploitation could lead to:
- Complete website compromise: Attackers could gain full administrative control of the WordPress site.
- Data theft and modification: Sensitive data could be stolen or altered.
- Malware distribution: The website could be used to distribute malware to visitors.
- Defacement: The website could be defaced, damaging the organization’s reputation.
- SPAM campaigns: The website can be used to send SPAM emails using the server’s resources.
Mitigation or Patch Steps
The only reliable mitigation is to update the Frontend Admin plugin to the latest available version. The updated version contains a patch that addresses the vulnerability by implementing proper capability checks and input validation.
- Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
- Navigate to the “Plugins” section.
- Locate the “Frontend Admin” plugin.
- If an update is available, click “Update Now”.
- If the plugin is not updated through the WP admin dashboard, you will need to download the patched version and manually update the plugin files or delete the affected plugin and install the new version.
- Verify that the plugin version is higher than 3.28.20.
If immediate updating is not possible, temporarily deactivating the plugin will reduce the risk of exploitation, though this will also disable the plugin’s functionality.
