CVE-2025-31524: Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in NotFound WP User Profiles

Overview

In this blog post, we’ll delve into the details of a newly discovered vulnerability, CVE-2025-31524. This cybersecurity flaw pertains to the Incorrect Privilege Assignment within NotFound WP User Profiles, a widely used WordPress plugin, and opens the door for potential Privilege Escalation. This vulnerability poses a significant threat to any organization or individual using the affected versions of WP User Profiles, as it can potentially lead to system compromise or data leakage.
Understanding and addressing this vulnerability is of utmost importance due to its high severity score and the potential damage it can inflict on an organization’s data and systems. In the following sections, we’ll discuss the specifics of the vulnerability, its impacts, affected products, and provide necessary mitigation guidance.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-31524
Severity: High (8.8 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Impact: System compromise and data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

NotFound WP User Profiles | Up to version 2.6.2

How the Exploit Works

The exploit takes advantage of an Incorrect Privilege Assignment within the NotFound WP User Profiles plugin. An attacker, with low-level privileges, can manipulate the plugin settings or features that are not correctly restricted. This flaw allows them to escalate their privileges within the system, gaining unauthorized access to sensitive data or even taking control of the system itself.

Conceptual Example Code

While we won’t provide exact exploit code (to prevent misuse), a conceptual example might involve a malicious HTTP request to a vulnerable endpoint. Such a request could look like this:

POST /wp-user-profiles/settings HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{
"user_id": "123",
"action": "modify",
"new_role": "administrator"
}

In this example, an attacker with low-level access (user_id: 123) is attempting to change their role to “administrator”, which would grant them high-level privileges and control over the system.

How to Mitigate

The primary mitigation guidance for this vulnerability is to apply the vendor patch. The developers of NotFound WP User Profiles have been alerted to this flaw and have issued a patch to correct the privilege assignment issue. All users of the plugin should apply this patch as soon as possible to protect their systems.
As a temporary mitigation strategy, users can also implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to monitor and block potential exploit attempts. However, this should be seen as a temporary solution until the vendor patch can be applied.