LearnpressWordPress extension · Thimpress
CVE-2020-7916
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedbe_teacher in class-lp-admin-ajax.php in the LearnPress plugin 3.2.6.5 and earlier for WordPress allows any registered user to assign itself the teacher role via the wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=learnpress_be_teacher URI without any additional permission checks. Therefore, any user can change its role to an instructor/teacher and gain access to otherwise restricted data.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe LearnPress WordPress plugin versions 3.2.6.5 and earlier contain a broken access control vulnerability in the be_teacher function within class-lp-admin-ajax.php. The function lacks proper capability checks, allowing any authenticated user (including subscriber-level accounts) to submit a request to the learnpress_be_teacher AJAX endpoint and self-assign the instructor/teacher role without administrator approval.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
LearnpressWordPress extension
<= 3.2.6.5CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify LearnPress plugin is installedIn WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'LearnPress' in the list. Note whether it is active or inactive.Affected if The LearnPress plugin is active and installed
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Check installed LearnPress versionIn WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins, find LearnPress, and read the version number displayed below the plugin name. Compare this version to 3.2.6.5 - versions 3.2.6.5 and earlier are affected.Affected if The installed version is 3.2.6.5 or any earlier version
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Confirm the vulnerable AJAX endpoint existsInspect the file class-lp-admin-ajax.php in the plugin directory. Search for the function 'be_teacher' or the action 'learnpress_be_teacher'. If this function exists without capability checks (such as 'manage_options' or 'LP_Manager'), the vulnerability is present.Affected if The be_teacher function exists without proper capability checks
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Check for unauthorized instructor role assignmentsIn WordPress admin, go to Users > All Users. Review the role column for each user. Look for any users with 'Instructor' or 'Teacher' roles who should not have instructor privileges, particularly users who have Subscriber or other low-privilege roles as their primary role.Affected if Any subscriber-level or low-privilege user has been assigned instructor/teacher role without admin action
You are affected if LearnPress version 3.2.6.5 or earlier is active and the be_teacher function lacks capability checks, allowing any authenticated user to self-assign instructor role.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpdate LearnPress to version 3.2.6.6 or later which includes proper authorization checks for the be_teacher functionality. As a temporary workaround, disable the LearnPress plugin until the update can be applied.
Fix this in Learnpress
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-7916 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-7916 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data