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Vulnerability Overview
CVE-2025-14533 is a critical privilege escalation vulnerability affecting the Advanced Custom Fields: Extended (ACFE) plugin — a widely used enhancement for the core Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) ecosystem.
With 100,000+ active installations, this flaw poses a severe risk to WordPress site integrity, enabling unauthenticated attackers to gain full administrative control.
- Vulnerability Type: Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269)
- CVSS v3.1 Score: 9.8 (Critical)
- Attack Vector: Network
- Authentication Required: None
- User Interaction: None
- Scope: Unchanged
CVSS Vector String:
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H- Security Researcher: Andrea Bocchetti
- Disclosure Program: Wordfence Bug Bounty Program
Technical Root Cause Analysis
The vulnerability originates from an insecure implementation of the insert_user function within ACFE’s front-end form handling logic.
What Went Wrong
- ACFE allows administrators to create front-end user registration or profile update forms
- These forms can map custom fields directly to WordPress user attributes
- The
roleparameter is not validated or restricted - No server-side whitelist of allowed roles exists for the form
Exploitation Flow
- A site exposes a front-end registration form using ACFE
- The form maps a custom field to the user role
- An unauthenticated attacker intercepts the request
- The attacker injects:
role=administrator - WordPress processes the request without authorization checks
- A new account is created with full admin privileges
This is a classic privilege escalation via missing authorization validation — one of the most dangerous classes of WordPress vulnerabilities.
Impact Assessment
Successful exploitation results in complete WordPress site compromise.
Confirmed Attack Capabilities
- Full Site Takeover
- Delete or lock out legitimate administrators
- Modify site configuration and security settings
- Malicious Code Execution
- Upload web shells via plugin/theme editors
- Establish persistent backdoors
- Sensitive Data Exposure
- Access
wp-config.php - Steal database credentials, API keys, salts
- Exfiltrate customer and order data (WooCommerce)
- Access
- SEO Spam & Defacement
- Inject malicious redirects
- Host phishing pages
- Blacklist damage to Google rankings
This vulnerability enables total compromise without authentication — making it extremely attractive for mass exploitation.
Remediation & Patch Information
The issue was responsibly disclosed in December 2024 and promptly patched.
Version Status
| Status | Version |
|---|---|
| Affected | ≤ 0.9.2.1 |
| Patched | 0.9.2.2 |
| Severity | Critical |
Immediate Mitigation Steps (MANDATORY)
1️ Update Immediately
WordPress Dashboard → Updates → PluginsEnsure ACFE ≥ 0.9.2.2
2️ Audit User Accounts
Users → All UsersLook for:
- Recently created Administrator accounts
- Unknown usernames or emails
- Suspicious creation timestamps
3️ Review Front-End Forms
- Disable ACFE User Action forms
- Remove any mapping to user role fields
- Re-enable only after patch verification
4️ Enable WAF Protection
- Ensure rules are updated if using:
- Wordfence
- Cloudflare
- Other managed WAFs
Wordfence Premium users received a dedicated firewall rule on December 11, 2025.
CYBERDUDEBIVASH Security Advisory
This vulnerability highlights a recurring WordPress security anti-pattern:
Trusting front-end input for privileged backend actions.
Any plugin handling user creation MUST enforce server-side role validation.
Organizations running WordPress in production, e-commerce, or client environments should treat this CVE as incident-level severity.
CyberDudeBivash Recommendation
- Enforce least-privilege user registration
- Conduct quarterly plugin security audits
- Deploy AI-assisted threat monitoring
- Enable real-time WAF & file integrity monitoring
If you manage multiple WordPress properties, this CVE should trigger a fleet-wide review.
Cyberdudebivash 
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