CVE-2025-3418: Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in WPC Admin Columns Plugin for WordPress

Overview

The cybersecurity landscape is continuously evolving with new vulnerabilities and threats surfacing regularly. One such recent discovery is the CVE-2025-3418, a privilege escalation vulnerability found in the WPC Admin Columns plugin for WordPress. This vulnerability, affecting versions 2.0.6 to 2.1.0, has the potential to compromise systems or lead to data leakage. Its identification and understanding is crucial for anyone running a WordPress site using the stated plugin, as it allows attackers to escalate their access level, providing them with an unfair advantage over the system resources.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-3418
Severity: High (CVSS: 8.8)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low (Subscriber-level access)
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

WPC Admin Columns Plugin for WordPress | 2.0.6 to 2.1.0

How the Exploit Works

The vulnerability resides in the ajax_edit_save() function of the WPC Admin Columns plugin. This function does not properly restrict user meta values that can be updated. As a result, authenticated users with Subscriber-level access and above can manipulate their user meta values to escalate their role to that of an Administrator, gaining full access to the system resources and potentially compromising the entire system or leaking sensitive data.

Conceptual Example Code

A conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited could look like the following HTTP request:

POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
Cookie: wordpress_logged_in_[hash]=username|expiry_time|session_token
{
"action": "wpc_ajax_edit_save",
"id": "wp_capabilities",
"value": "a:1:{s:13:"administrator";b:1;}"
}

In this example, the attacker sends an HTTP POST request to the WordPress AJAX endpoint, where the action parameter is set to the vulnerable function ‘wpc_ajax_edit_save’. The ‘id’ parameter is set to ‘wp_capabilities’, which is the meta key for user roles in WordPress, and the ‘value’ parameter is set to the serialized PHP array for the Administrator role.

Mitigation Guidance

The easiest way to mitigate this vulnerability is by applying the vendor patch. If the patch cannot be immediately applied, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation. These systems can be configured to block or alert on HTTP POST requests to the WordPress AJAX endpoint with the action parameter set to ‘wpc_ajax_edit_save’ and the ‘id’ parameter set to ‘wp_capabilities’.