CVE-2022-4701 in Royal Elementor Addons Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 01/10/2023
The Royal Elementor Addons plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to insufficient access control in the 'wpr_activate_required_plugins' AJAX action in versions up to, and including, 1.3.59. This allows any authenticated user, including those with subscriber-level permissions, to activate the 'contact-form-7', 'media-library-assistant', or 'woocommerce' plugins if they are installed on the site.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/09/2026
The Royal Elementor Addons plugin for WordPress represents a widely used extension that enhances website functionality through various add-on features. This particular vulnerability affects versions up to and including 1.3.59, where a critical access control flaw exists within the wpr_activate_required_plugins AJAX action. The vulnerability stems from inadequate permission checks that fail to verify whether the requesting user possesses sufficient privileges to perform plugin activation operations. This oversight creates a significant security risk that directly violates the principle of least privilege, as outlined in the CWE-284 access control weakness classification.
The technical flaw manifests through the improper validation of user permissions within the AJAX endpoint handling plugin activation requests. When an authenticated user submits a request to activate specific plugins through this endpoint, the system fails to authenticate the user's administrative capabilities or role level. This allows low-privilege users such as subscribers to manipulate the plugin activation process, potentially enabling them to activate critical plugins like contact-form-7 for contact form functionality, media-library-assistant for enhanced media management, or woocommerce for e-commerce capabilities. The vulnerability essentially provides unauthorized access to plugin management functions that should only be available to administrators or users with elevated privileges.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as it enables attackers to potentially compromise the entire WordPress installation through the activation of malicious or unauthorized plugins. A subscriber-level user could activate plugins that introduce backdoors, data exfiltration capabilities, or other malicious functionalities that could be exploited to gain further access to the system. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059.001 for executing malicious code through plugin activation and T1546.001 for persistence mechanisms. The activation of woocommerce plugin could expose sensitive customer data, while contact-form-7 activation might allow for spam injection or data harvesting attacks, making this a particularly dangerous vulnerability for e-commerce and content management sites.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement multiple layers of mitigation strategies to address the access control deficiency. The most critical immediate action involves upgrading to the latest version of the Royal Elementor Addons plugin where this vulnerability has been patched. Additionally, administrators should implement role-based access controls to limit plugin installation capabilities to only trusted administrators, while monitoring AJAX endpoint usage for suspicious activities. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper input validation and access control checks, as recommended by OWASP Top 10 security practices, particularly focusing on the prevention of unauthorized privilege escalation. Regular security audits of WordPress plugins and their AJAX endpoints should be conducted to identify similar access control weaknesses that could be exploited by attackers to compromise system integrity and user data confidentiality.