WP Human Resource Management: Privilege escalation or authentication bypass
WP Human Resource Management is affected by privilege escalation or authentication bypass. Exploitation requires an authenticated WordPress account. A successful request can grant permissions or access that the caller should not possess.
- Component
- WP Human Resource Management
- Plugin slug
hrm- Affected
- See vendor advisory
- Safe version
- See mitigation notes
- Published
- Jul 04, 2025
- Weakness
- CWE-862 — Missing Authorization
This CVE was published Jul 04, 2025 and is one of 4 known issues for this plugin.
Update, patch or deactivate.
Update WP Human Resource Management to a release outside the affected range, or disable and remove it until a fixed version is available.
No confirmed safe version is listed. Consider a vendor-supported patch or temporarily restricting the affected functionality while you assess the risk.
Deactivate only when warranted by your risk profile, or when advised by your hosting provider in the limited circumstances where the vulnerability cannot otherwise be mitigated. If you’re unsure which action is appropriate, contact Fused or your hosting provider for guidance.
Technical 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.
CVE / CNA vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H