CVE-2025-12981
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 · uneditedThe Listee theme for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.1.6. This is due to a broken validation check in the bundled listee-core plugin's user registration function that fails to properly sanitize the user_role parameter. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to register as Administrator by manipulating the user_role parameter during registration.
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 Listee theme for WordPress (versions up to 1.1.6) contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in its bundled listee-core plugin. The user registration function has a broken validation check that fails to properly sanitize the user_role parameter, allowing unauthenticated attackers to register accounts with Administrator privileges by manipulating this parameter during registration.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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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Identify Listee theme versionNavigate to Appearance > Themes in WordPress admin dashboard and locate the Listee theme. Check the theme details to confirm the installed version number.Affected if The installed version is 1.1.6 or lower (including any version up to 1.1.6).
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Verify listee-core plugin statusNavigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'listee-core' or a core plugin bundled with the Listee theme. Note whether it is active or inactive.Affected if The listee-core plugin is present and active on the WordPress installation.
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Confirm user registration is enabledGo to Settings > General in WordPress admin and locate the 'Membership' setting. Check whether 'Anyone can register' is ticked, and note the default user role dropdown value.Affected if 'Anyone can register' is enabled on the site, regardless of the default role setting.
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Audit administrator accountsNavigate to Users > All Users and review the list of users with the Administrator role. Check for unknown or suspicious administrator accounts, particularly those created recently or with unfamiliar email addresses.Affected if There are administrator accounts that were not created by known site administrators, or unexpected accounts exist.
A site is affected if it runs Listee theme version 1.1.6 or lower with the bundled listee-core plugin active and user registration enabled, potentially indicated by unauthorized administrator accounts.
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 the Listee theme to a version beyond 1.1.6 when available, or disable user registration functionality if not required. Review existing administrator accounts for unauthorized access.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-12981 — 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-2025-12981 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