Authorization Bypass (IDOR)Weakness · CWE-639

CVE-2025-14996

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-01-06
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 AS Password Field In Default Registration Form plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation via account takeover in all versions up to, and including, 2.0.0. This is due to the plugin not properly validating a user's identity prior to updating their password. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to change arbitrary user's passwords, including administrators, and leverage that to gain access to their account.

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 AS Password Field In Default Registration Form plugin for WordPress fails to validate user identity before allowing password updates, enabling unauthenticated attackers to reset passwords for any user account including administrators and achieve full account takeover.

MitigationUpdate the plugin to version 2.0.1 or later which contains the identity validation fix, or disable the plugin until a patch is available.

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. Check plugin version
    In the WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and locate the entry for 'AS Password Field In Default Registration Form'. Note the version number shown in the description. Alternatively, open the plugin's main PHP file (typically found in /wp-content/plugins/as-password-field-in-default-registration-form/ and named after the plugin folder) and look for the 'Version:' header.
    Affected if The listed version is lower than 2.0.1 (e.g., 2.0.0, 1.x.x).
  2. Confirm the plugin is active
    Verify that the plugin is currently activated in the WordPress Plugins list.
    Affected if The plugin shows as active.
  3. Verify the password field is present on the default registration form
    Navigate to the page where the default WordPress registration form is displayed (or use a shortcode/widget provided by the plugin). View the page source or inspect the form elements to confirm that an <input type='password'> field is included in the registration form.
    Affected if A password input field appears in the default registration form.
  4. Inspect password reset handling code
    Open the plugin's main PHP file and any related files that handle user registration or password updates. Look for code that processes a password change or reset without verifying the current user's identity (e.g., direct update of user_pass or wp_set_password based on a request parameter).
    Affected if The plugin contains password update logic that can be triggered without authentication.

If the plugin version is below 2.0.1, the plugin is active, and the password field is enabled on the default registration form, the environment is vulnerable to unauthenticated password reset.

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 plugin to version 2.0.1 or later which contains the identity validation fix, or disable the plugin until a patch is available.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Version 2.0.1 or latest available version

  1. Navigate to the WordPress admin dashboard
  2. Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins
  3. Locate 'AS Password Field In Default Registration Form'
  4. Check if an update is available and update to the latest version (2.0.1 or higher)
  5. Alternatively, download the latest version from the WordPress plugin repository and reinstall

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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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-14996 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-14996 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
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data