CVE-2026-2720 in Hr Press Lite Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 03/21/2026
The Hr Press Lite plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized access of sensitive employee data due to a missing capability check on the `hrp-fetch-employees` AJAX action in all versions up to, and including, 1.0.2. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to retrieve sensitive employee information including names, email addresses, phone numbers, salary/pay rates, employment dates, and employment status.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/21/2026
The CVE-2026-2720 vulnerability resides within the Hr Press Lite WordPress plugin, a tool designed to manage human resources information within WordPress environments. This particular flaw represents a critical authorization bypass issue that undermines the security posture of organizations relying on the plugin for employee data management. The vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 1.0.2, indicating a long-standing issue that has persisted without adequate remediation. The flaw manifests through a critical missing capability check within the plugin's AJAX handling mechanism, specifically targeting the `hrp-fetch-employees` action. This represents a fundamental breakdown in the plugin's access control implementation, where proper authentication and authorization checks have been omitted, creating an exploitable pathway for unauthorized data retrieval.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the absence of proper capability verification within the AJAX endpoint. When an authenticated user submits a request to the `hrp-fetch-employees` action, the plugin fails to validate whether the requesting user possesses the appropriate permissions to access the requested employee data. This missing validation occurs at the application logic level, where the plugin assumes that any authenticated user can access the employee information without proper authorization checks. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-285, which addresses improper authorization issues in software applications, and represents a classic case of insufficient access control mechanisms. Attackers with Subscriber-level privileges or higher can exploit this flaw to gain access to sensitive employee information, bypassing the intended security boundaries that should prevent such unauthorized access.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data exposure, as it compromises the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive human resources information. The data accessible through this vulnerability includes comprehensive employee details such as personal contact information, financial data including salary and pay rates, employment history, and employment status information. This type of exposure creates significant risk for organizations, as it potentially enables identity theft, financial fraud, and other malicious activities. The vulnerability affects the principle of least privilege, where users should only have access to data necessary for their role functions. From an attack perspective, this represents a privilege escalation vector that allows lower-privileged users to access data typically restricted to HR administrators or higher-level personnel. The vulnerability also creates potential compliance issues, as organizations may face regulatory violations under data protection laws such as gdpr or ccpa when sensitive employee information is exposed without proper authorization.
Organizations utilizing the Hr Press Lite plugin should immediately implement mitigations to address this vulnerability. The most effective approach involves upgrading to a patched version of the plugin where the missing capability check has been properly implemented. Until a fix is available, administrators should consider implementing additional access controls through WordPress user role management to limit the privileges of users who do not require access to HR data. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of regular security audits and penetration testing of WordPress plugins, particularly those handling sensitive data. From a defensive perspective, implementing network-level monitoring to detect unusual AJAX requests targeting employee data could help identify potential exploitation attempts. Additionally, organizations should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments of their WordPress installations to identify similar authorization flaws in other plugins or themes. The incident underscores the necessity of following secure coding practices and implementing proper input validation and access control mechanisms in web applications, aligning with the principles outlined in the owasp top ten and other cybersecurity frameworks that emphasize the importance of proper authentication and authorization controls.