CVE-2025-14996
Published: 06 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2025-14996 is a critical-severity Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key (CWE-639) vulnerability in Wordpress (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 23.3th 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-3 (Access Enforcement).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2025-14996 is a privilege escalation vulnerability via account takeover in the AS Password Field In Default Registration Form plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 2.0.0. The issue stems from the plugin failing to properly validate a user's identity before updating their password, published on 2026-01-06 with 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) and mapped to CWE-639 (Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key).
Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely with low complexity and no user interaction required. By leveraging the flawed password update mechanism, they can change the passwords of arbitrary users, including administrators, to gain unauthorized access to those accounts and potentially achieve full site compromise.
Advisories and related resources, including the Wordfence threat intelligence report at https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/061f022b-b922-4499-bb34-8ea91ba5ace3?source=cve and the plugin source code at https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/as-password-field-in-default-registration-form/tags/2.0.0/as-password-field-default-registration.php, provide further details on the vulnerability for mitigation guidance.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-1078
Vulnerability details
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…
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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.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Unauthenticated remote exploitation of a public-facing WordPress plugin vulnerability (T1190: Exploit Public-Facing Application) enables arbitrary account takeover, including administrators, resulting in privilege escalation (T1068: Exploitation for Privilege Escalation).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Enforces approved authorizations preventing unauthenticated attackers from updating arbitrary user passwords without identity validation.
Requires verification of user identity prior to authenticator changes, directly mitigating the plugin's failure to validate identity before password updates.
Establishes secure procedures for managing accounts and passwords, restricting unauthorized changes to privileged accounts like administrators.