WP Human Resource Management 2.0.0 - 2.2.17 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Employee+) Privilege Escalation via wp_ajax_hrm_insert_employee AJAX Action
Vulnerability Description
The WP Human Resource Management plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation due to missing authorization in the ajax_insert_employee() and update_empoyee() functions in versions 2.0.0 through 2.2.17. The AJAX handler reads the client-supplied $_POST['role'] and, after basic cleaning via hrm_clean(), passes it directly to wp_insert_user() and later to $user->set_role() without verifying that the current user is allowed to assign that role. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Employee-level access and above, to elevate their privileges to administrator.
Impact Analysis
Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.
Remediation
Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.
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Credits & Attribution
The following person or organization is credited with identifying this vulnerability, as recorded in the NVD database:
- Kenneth Dunn
References
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/3ba33a18-429f-4a3e-b018-bdfbbe6e8482?source=cve
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/hrm/#developers
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/hrm/tags/2.2.17/class/employee.php#L89
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/hrm/tags/2.2.17/class/employee.php#L543
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/hrm/tags/2.2.17/class/employee.php#L591
Affected Vendor
asaquzzaman
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