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Improper Privilege ManagementWeakness · CWE-269

CVE-2025-13618

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-05-05
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
The Mentoring plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.2.8. This is due to the plugin not properly restricting the roles that users can register with in the mentoring_process_registration() function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to register with administrator-level user accounts.

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 confidence

The WordPress Mentoring plugin versions up to 1.2.8 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the mentoring_process_registration() function. The function fails to validate or restrict the user role parameter during registration, allowing unauthenticated attackers to specify Administrator as their role and gain full administrative access to the WordPress site.

MitigationUpdate the Mentoring plugin to version 1.2.9 or later which enforces proper role restrictions. If immediate update is not possible, disable user registration functionality in WordPress or restrict the plugin via web application firewall rules pending patch deployment.

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Mentoring plugin is installed
    Navigate to WordPress admin dashboard > Plugins and look for 'Mentoring' in the list of installed plugins, or inspect the plugin files at /wp-content/plugins/mentoring/ for the presence of the mentoring.php main file
    Affected if the Mentoring plugin is present on the WordPress site
  2. Determine installed plugin version
    In the Plugins list, find the Mentoring plugin and check the version number displayed beneath the plugin name. Alternatively, open the main plugin file (mentoring.php) and look for the 'Version' header in the plugin comment block
    Affected if the version is 1.2.8 or lower (any version up to and including 1.2.8)
  3. Verify WordPress user registration is enabled
    Go to WordPress admin > Settings > General > 'Membership' section and check if 'Anyone can register' is checked. Or inspect the site database or wp-options table for the option 'users_can_register' set to 1
    Affected if anyone can register is enabled on the WordPress site
  4. Confirm registration function is accessible
    Test if the plugin registration endpoint is reachable by submitting a registration request to the site (e.g., via the frontend registration form if exposed, or checking for the mentoring_process_registration function in plugin code and its accessibility via WordPress hooks/actions)
    Affected if the registration functionality is exposed and callable without authentication

You are affected if the Mentoring plugin version is 1.2.8 or lower AND WordPress user registration is enabled, allowing unauthenticated access to the vulnerable registration function.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update the Mentoring plugin to version 1.2.9 or later which enforces proper role restrictions. If immediate update is not possible, disable user registration functionality in WordPress or restrict the plugin via web application firewall rules pending patch deployment.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Latest version after 1.2.8 (verify exact version number from vendor release notes)

  1. 1. Update the Mentoring plugin to the latest available version from the WordPress plugin repository or the vendor's official source
  2. 2. After updating, verify that the `mentoring_process_registration()` function properly validates user roles
  3. 3. Review existing user accounts to ensure no unauthorized administrator accounts were created
  4. 4. Consider implementing additional access controls or firewall rules to restrict registration endpoints until the patch is applied

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-13618 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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