Security Resilience

CVE-2023-41954

Properfraction Profilepress ≤ 4.13.2

Published
17 May 2024
Modified
09 June 2025
CVSS Score v3.1 8.6
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:L
EPSS Score 0.014 72th percentile
Risk Priority 77 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-41954 is a high-severity Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269) vulnerability in Properfraction Profilepress. Its CVSS base score is 8.6 (High).

Operationally, ranked in the top 28% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-2 (Account Management) and AC-24 (Access Control Decisions) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2023-41954 is an improper privilege management flaw, tracked under CWE-269, that permits privilege escalation in the ProfilePress WordPress plugin maintained by ProfilePress Membership Team. The vulnerability affects all versions through 4.13.1 and carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.6.

An unauthenticated attacker with network access can exploit the issue without user interaction, resulting in limited privilege escalation that yields low impact to confidentiality, high impact to integrity, and low impact to availability.

Advisories published by Patchstack document the unauthenticated limited privilege escalation vector and identify the affected plugin versions, directing administrators to apply the vendor-supplied update that resolves the flaw.

EPSS for the CVE rose from lower values to a peak of 0.2039 on 2025-12-11 before receding to the current score of 0.0977, indicating that exploitation interest increased after public disclosure.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in ProfilePress Membership Team ProfilePress allows Privilege Escalation.This issue affects ProfilePress: from n/a through 4.13.1.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2021-34621Same product: Properfraction Profilepress
CVE-2024-1519Same product: Properfraction Profilepress
CVE-2024-11083Same product: Properfraction Profilepress
CVE-2024-10517Same product: Properfraction Profilepress
CVE-2024-2861Same product: Properfraction Profilepress
CVE-2024-1408Same product: Properfraction Profilepress
CVE-2024-3210Same product: Properfraction Profilepress
CVE-2024-2867Same product: Properfraction Profilepress
CVE-2024-9947Same product: Properfraction Profilepress
CVE-2024-1046Same product: Properfraction Profilepress

Affected Assets

properfraction
profilepress
≤ 4.13.2

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Account management directly governs assignment and tracking of privileges so proper implementation stops the weakness from being introduced.

Requiring explicit access-control decisions ensures privileges are evaluated rather than assumed or omitted.

Access enforcement applies the correct privilege checks at every request, structurally preventing unintended spheres of control.

Separation of duties constrains how privileges may be assigned, reducing the chance of overly broad actor control.

Least privilege is the direct countermeasure to improper privilege management; implementing it eliminates the root cause.

Binding security attributes to subjects/objects supplies the mechanism needed to track and enforce privileges correctly.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

blocks

A.5.15 directly mandates determining access requirements, defining/enforcing topic-specific access control policy, assigning rights/restrictions by entity/role, consistency with classification, need-to-know, privileged access restrictions, segregation, formal authorization, and dynamic rules — which stops most improper privilege management from being exploitable; bounded remainder is flawed implementation of those rules (e.g. incorrect mapping or enforcement bugs).

blocks

A.5.18 directly governs the provisioning, review, modification and timely revocation of access rights (including for role changes, termination and privilege levels), which stops most improper privilege spheres from being exploitable even if the assignment flaw exists; the bounded remainder is flaws in the underlying enforcement mechanism itself (e.g. AC-3/A.8.3)

blocks

Defining and communicating authorization levels for each role limits the assignment of excessive or unnecessary privileges.

A.8.15 Logging partial match
finds

Logging every use of privileges and protecting those records makes it harder for an attacker who has obtained elevated rights to operate without leaving evidence.

blocks

A.8.2 directly controls the identification, allocation, review, expiry, temporary use, and separation of privileged rights per policy, which prevents most improper privilege management (CWE-269) by design; the bounded remainder is flawed tracking/checking logic inside the product's own enforcement code (the AC-3 slice of 269).

blocks

A.8.27 mandates security-by-design principles including least privilege, default deny, fail securely, defence in depth, security architecture integration, hardening, and zero-trust verification of every request; these directly stop most improper privilege spheres from being exploitable even if the assignment flaw remains, with a bounded remainder (e.g. certain legacy or safety-overridden controls).

Hardening callouts derived

DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.

References