CVE-2025-14996

Critical

Published: 06 January 2026

Published

06 January 2026

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 0.0019 40.2th percentile

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

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 40.2th 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).

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-3 Access Enforcement good match

prevent

Enforces approved authorizations preventing unauthenticated attackers from updating arbitrary user passwords without identity validation.

IA-5 Authenticator Management good match

prevent

Requires verification of user identity prior to authenticator changes, directly mitigating the plugin's failure to validate identity before password updates.

AC-2 Account Management good match

prevent

Establishes secure procedures for managing accounts and passwords, restricting unauthorized changes to privileged accounts like administrators.

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?

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).

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

NVD Description

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…

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.

Deeper analysisAI

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.