Incorrect Privilege AssignmentWeakness · CWE-266

CVE-2025-69182

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-01-22
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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 e-plugins Institutions Directory institutions-directory allows Privilege Escalation.This issue affects Institutions Directory: from n/a through <= 1.3.4.

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

This is an Incorrect Privilege Assignment vulnerability in the e-plugins Institutions Directory WordPress plugin (versions up to 1.3.4). The flaw allows authenticated users to escalate their privileges beyond what their assigned role should permit, likely due to improper validation of user capabilities or role permissions when performing administrative actions.

MitigationUpdate the Institutions Directory plugin to the latest version immediately. If no update is available, consider disabling the plugin until a patch is released, and audit user accounts for unauthorized privilege escalation.

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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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. Verify plugin installation and version
    Navigate to WordPress admin > Plugins and locate the 'Institutions Directory' plugin, or inspect the plugin main file header for the 'Version' comment
    Affected if The plugin is installed and the version is 1.3.4 or lower (any version up to 1.3.4 is affected)
  2. Review user role assignments
    Go to WordPress admin > Users and list all user accounts with their assigned roles, cross-referencing against legitimate access records
    Affected if Any user has a WordPress role (such as Administrator) that was not intentionally assigned by a legitimate administrator
  3. Check for unauthorized admin accounts
    Inspect the Users list for newly created accounts with Administrator role, or existing accounts whose role was changed to Administrator without authorization
    Affected if There are Administrator accounts that you did not create or authorize
  4. Audit plugin-specific user permissions
    If the plugin provides its own user/permission management interface within WordPress admin, examine whether standard users can access plugin administrative features they should not have access to
    Affected if Users with roles below Administrator (such as Editor, Author, Contributor, or Subscriber) can access or modify plugin settings or data that should require Administrator privileges
  5. Review recent user activity logs
    Check WordPress audit logs or security plugins for recent administrative actions (user creation, role changes, plugin settings modifications) performed by accounts that should not have such capabilities
    Affected if Administrative actions were performed by users whose assigned WordPress role should not permit such operations

Your environment is affected if the Institutions Directory plugin is installed at version 1.3.4 or lower, or if you detect user accounts with escalated privileges that were not authorized by an administrator.

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 the Institutions Directory plugin to the latest version immediately. If no update is available, consider disabling the plugin until a patch is released, and audit user accounts for unauthorized privilege escalation.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,670
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,272.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-69182 — 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-2025-69182 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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