ProfilepressWordPress extension · Properfraction
CVE-2023-41954
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 · uneditedImproper Privilege Management vulnerability in ProfilePress Membership Team ProfilePress allows Privilege Escalation.This issue affects ProfilePress: from n/a through 4.13.1.
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 · moderate confidenceImproper Privilege Management vulnerability in ProfilePress allows authenticated users to escalate their privileges beyond what their role should permit, likely enabling subscriber or lower-privileged users to gain administrator-level access to the WordPress site.
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
ProfilepressWordPress extension
< 4.13.2CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:L
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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Confirm ProfilePress plugin is installedNavigate to WordPress admin > Plugins, or check the wp-content/plugins directory for a folder named 'profilepress' or 'properfraction-profilepress'Affected if The ProfilePress plugin is present on the WordPress site
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Check installed version against vulnerable rangeIn WordPress admin > Plugins, find ProfilePress and view the version number, or read the version from the plugin's main PHP file headerAffected if The installed version is lower than 4.13.2
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Identify lower-privileged user accountsNavigate to WordPress admin > Users and review the list of users. Note any accounts with Subscriber, Contributor, or Author rolesAffected if Lower-privileged user accounts (subscriber, contributor, author) exist on the site AND the plugin version is vulnerable
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Audit administrator accounts for unauthorized creationIn WordPress admin > Users, examine the 'Registered' date column for admin accounts. Look for admin accounts created around September 2023 or by unknown usersAffected if There are administrator accounts that were created recently or by unexpected users
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Check for privilege escalation indicatorsAccess the WordPress database via phpMyAdmin or CLI and query the wp_usermeta table, looking for users with roles other than administrator who have wp_capabilities containing 'administrator'Affected if Non-administrator users have administrator-level capabilities in the database
A user is affected if ProfilePress version is below 4.13.2 AND the site has user accounts with roles below administrator that could potentially be exploited for privilege escalation.
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.
dbcve · scoped4.13.2
Update ProfilePress to the latest version immediately. Review user accounts for unauthorized privilege escalation and audit admin accounts created around the time of the vulnerability disclosure.
ProfilePress 4.13.2
- 1. Backup your WordPress database and files before proceeding
- 2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins in your WordPress admin dashboard
- 3. Find ProfilePress in the plugins list
- 4. Click on 'Update now' if an update is available, or download version 4.13.2 from the official WordPress plugin repository
- 5. Alternatively, you can update automatically via WordPress admin if notifications are enabled
- 6. After updating, verify the version number matches 4.13.2 in Plugins > Installed Plugins
- 7. Test user role assignments and privilege-related functionality to confirm the vulnerability is remediated
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Profilepress
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,696.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-41954 — 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-2023-41954 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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