CVE-2025-13542
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 DesignThemes LMS plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.0.4. This is due to the 'dtlms_register_user_front_end' function not restricting what user roles a user can register with. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to supply the 'administrator' role during registration and gain administrator access to the site.
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 DesignThemes LMS WordPress plugin has a privilege escalation vulnerability in the dtlms_register_user_front_end function. Unauthenticated attackers can register with an arbitrary user role by supplying the 'administrator' parameter during registration, bypassing role validation entirely.
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 if DesignThemes LMS plugin is installedIn WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'DesignThemes LMS' or check the wp-content/plugins directory for a folder containing 'dtlms' or 'lms'. Read the plugin file header for the version number.Affected if The plugin is installed and the version is less than the patched version (any unpatched version is vulnerable)
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Verify WordPress user registration is enabledIn WordPress admin, go to Settings > General and check 'Anyone can register' is enabled. Alternatively, check the 'users_can_register' option in wp-options table.Affected if User registration is enabled on the site, which is required for the exploit to work
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Confirm the vulnerable function existsCheck the plugin files for the function dtlms_register_user_front_end. Search in plugin PHP files for this function name and examine if it accepts a 'role' or 'administrator' parameter without proper validation.Affected if The function dtlms_register_user_front_end exists and accepts role parameters without proper validation
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Test if arbitrary role assignment is possibleSubmit a registration request (typically via the registration form or direct POST to wp-login.php?action=register or the plugin's registration endpoint) including an 'administrator' parameter or 'role' parameter set to 'administrator', then verify if the created user has administrator privileges.Affected if A user can register with administrator or any privileged role without admin authentication
The site is affected if DesignThemes LMS plugin is installed with user registration enabled and the vulnerable registration function accepts arbitrary role parameters.
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 dataImmediately restrict the registration function to only accept predefined, non-privileged roles and remove the role parameter from unauthenticated registration requests. Update to any patched version when available.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-13542 — 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-2025-13542 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
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