WP Human Resource Management Plugin up to 2.2.17 on WordPress AJAX ajax_insert_employee role authorization

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in WP Human Resource Management Plugin up to 2.2.17 on WordPress. This impacts the function ajax_insert_employee of the component AJAX Handler. This manipulation of the argument role causes authorization. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2025-5953. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in WP Human Resource Management Plugin up to 2.2.17 on WordPress. Affected by this vulnerability is the function ajax_insert_employee of the component AJAX Handler. The manipulation of the argument role with an unknown input leads to a authorization vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-862. The product does not perform an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

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.

The advisory is shared at wordfence.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-5953 since 06/09/2025. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 07/04/2025).

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at EUVD (EUVD-2025-19920). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• WordPress Plugin

Name

• WP Human Resource Management Plugin

Version

• 2.2.0
• 2.2.1
• 2.2.2
• 2.2.3
• 2.2.4
• 2.2.5
• 2.2.6
• 2.2.7
• 2.2.8
• 2.2.9
• 2.2.10
• 2.2.11
• 2.2.12
• 2.2.13
• 2.2.14
• 2.2.15
• 2.2.16
• 2.2.17

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

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Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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