Incorrect Privilege AssignmentWeakness · CWE-266

CVE-2025-31420

HIGH · 7.6 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-04-04
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
82/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable 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
Incorrect Privilege Assignment vulnerability in Tomdever wpForo Forum wpforo allows Privilege Escalation.This issue affects wpForo Forum: from n/a through <= 2.4.2.

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 confidence

A privilege escalation vulnerability in the wpForo Forum WordPress plugin (versions <= 2.4.2) allows authenticated users to gain higher privileges due to incorrect privilege assignment logic. Users with lower-level forum permissions can exploit this flaw to access administrative or moderator functions they should not have access to.

MitigationUpdate wpForo Forum plugin to the latest patched version as soon as available. If no patch exists, audit user roles and permissions immediately and consider disabling the plugin until a fix is released.

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
High
Availability
Low

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 checks

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

  1. Identify wpForo Forum plugin installation and version
    Navigate to WordPress admin > Plugins and locate wpForo Forum to view the installed version, or inspect the plugin header file wp-content/plugins/wpforo/functions.php for the version declaration
    Affected if Plugin version is 2.4.2 or lower
  2. Audit existing user roles with forum permissions
    Review all WordPress user accounts and custom wpForo forum roles (Subscriber, Member, Guest, Moderator) by going to Users > All Users and checking wpForo > Members > Roles for any custom role assignments
    Affected if Lower-level forum users (Subscriber, Member, or Guest roles) are present in the system
  3. Check for unauthorized privilege escalation
    Compare user capabilities against expected baselines by reviewing each user account in WordPress admin and checking if any non-admin users now have administrative access or moderator functions they were not previously assigned
    Affected if Users with low-level forum permissions have gained access to admin or moderator functions they should not possess
  4. Review access permission configuration
    Inspect wpForo > Settings > General > Access section to verify which forum roles have been granted access to what levels of functionality, looking for any misconfigured privilege assignments
    Affected if Low-level forum roles have been granted elevated permissions beyond their intended scope

If wpForo Forum version is 2.4.2 or lower AND any low-level forum users have acquired administrative or moderator capabilities they should not have, the environment is affected by this privilege escalation vulnerability.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update wpForo Forum plugin to the latest patched version as soon as available. If no patch exists, audit user roles and permissions immediately and consider disabling the plugin until a fix is released.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,120
Get help mitigating

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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-31420 — 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-2025-31420 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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