CVE-2025-5954

Critical

Published: 01 August 2025

Published

01 August 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 0.0027 50.1th percentile

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

Summary

CVE-2025-5954 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 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked in the top 49.9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; 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 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068) and 2 other techniques. 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

Enforces least privilege principle to prevent unauthenticated attackers from assigning themselves administrator roles during plugin registration.

AC-2 Account Management good match

prevent

Manages account creation and modification processes, requiring restrictions and approvals for role assignments to block unauthorized privilege escalation.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

prevent

Validates inputs in the aonesms_fn_savedata_after_signup() function to reject invalid or elevated user role selections during registration.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation

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

attack.mitre.org →

T1136.001 Local Account Persistence

Adversaries may create a local account to maintain access to victim systems.

attack.mitre.org →

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 →

Why these techniques?

Direct unauthenticated remote exploitation of improper privilege management in public-facing WordPress plugin signup enables account creation with admin rights (T1136.001) and privilege escalation (T1068) via public app exploit (T1190).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v18.1

NVD Description

The Service Finder SMS System 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 restricting user role selection at the time of registration…

through the aonesms_fn_savedata_after_signup() function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to register as an administrator user.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-5954 is a privilege escalation vulnerability via account takeover affecting the Service Finder SMS System plugin for WordPress in all versions up to and including 2.0.0. The issue stems from the plugin's aonesms_fn_savedata_after_signup() function failing to restrict user role selection during registration, enabling attackers to assign themselves elevated privileges. It has 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 is associated with CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management).

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely with low complexity and no user interaction required. By registering a new account through the plugin's signup process, they can select and gain administrator privileges, potentially achieving full control over the WordPress site, including access to sensitive data, modification of content, and execution of arbitrary actions.

Advisories and further details are available from the Wordfence threat intelligence report at https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/520c1e8b-d0c1-4201-90bf-0cefab9af7e0?source=cve and the plugin's listing on ThemeForest at https://themeforest.net/item/service-finder-service-and-business-listing-wordpress-theme/15208793. Security practitioners should review these sources for patch information and mitigation guidance.