CVE-2025-11533

Critical

Published: 11 October 2025

Published

11 October 2025

Modified

15 April 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0021 42.9th percentile

Risk Priority 20 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-11533 is a critical-severity Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269) vulnerability in Themeforest (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 42.9th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-2 (Account Management) and AC-6 (Least Privilege).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) and 1 other technique. What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

AC-6 Least Privilege good match

prevent

AC-6 enforces least privilege by ensuring users are assigned only necessary privileges, directly preventing self-assignment of administrator roles during registration.

AC-2 Account Management good match

prevent

AC-2 requires proper account management processes, including privilege assignment during creation, to block unauthorized escalation via the registration function.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

prevent

SI-10 mandates validation of inputs like user roles in the process_register() function, rejecting unauthorized administrator role specifications.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access

Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.

attack.mitre.org →

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

The vulnerability enables unauthenticated remote exploitation of a public-facing WordPress plugin (T1190) to register an administrator account, achieving privilege escalation (T1068).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

NVD Description

The WP Freeio plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.2.21. This is due to the process_register() function not restricting what user roles a user can register with. This makes it possible…

for unauthenticated attackers to supply the 'administrator' role during registration and gain administrator access to the site.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-11533 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in the WP Freeio plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 1.2.21. The flaw arises in the process_register() function, which does not restrict the user roles that can be specified during registration. This allows attackers to self-assign the 'administrator' role upon creating an account.

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability over the network with low attack complexity and no user interaction or privileges required, earning it a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). By supplying the 'administrator' role during the registration process, they gain full administrative access to the site, enabling high-impact confidentiality, integrity, and availability violations. The issue maps to CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management).

Advisories providing further details, including potential mitigation steps, are available from Wordfence at https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/0db85f84-04e9-42eb-a16b-96554fbfd186?source=cve and the plugin's ThemeForest page at https://themeforest.net/item/freeio-freelance-marketplace-wordpress-theme/42045416. The CVE was published on 2025-10-11T08:15:32.157.