CVE-2025-5953: WP Human Resource Management: Privilege Escalation

WP Human Resource Management: Privilege Escalation

The WP Human Resource Management plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation due to missing authorization in the ajax_insert_employee() and update_empoyee() functions in versions 2.0.0 through 2.2.17. The AJAX handler reads the client-supplied $_POST['role'] and, after basic cleaning via hrm_clean(), passes it directly to wp_insert_user() and later to $user->set_role() without verifying that the current user is allowed to assign that role. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Employee-level access and above, to elevate their privileges to administrator.

Description from the National Vulnerability Database, published by Wordfence

What it means for a small business

WP Human Resource Management is a WordPress plugin. If your website uses it, the flaw is on your site whether or not anyone has noticed yet: attackers scan the whole internet for the plugins with published flaws, usually within days of a record like this one going public.

Most small-business sites run 15 to 40 plugins, and few owners know the list. You can check from WordPress itself (Plugins, then Installed Plugins), or let our free plugin check look it up by name.

Check your own setup

Is WP Human Resource Management on the danger list? Our free plugin check shows every recorded flaw for it and the version that fixes each.
Website check: reads what your site runs from the outside (WordPress version, plugins it can see, old server software) and matches it against this database.
Server check: what your web server says about itself, and whether that version has known flaws.

Sources

Part of the Huttenlocher Technologies vulnerability database, refreshed twice a day from CISA and the NVD. The title, category and plain-language guidance are ours; check the linked record before acting on a detail. This is general guidance, not a review of your systems.

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