CVE-2025-15521

Academy LMS – WordPress LMS Plugin for Complete eLearning Solution <= 3.5.0 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Account Takeover

2026-01-20 11:36
vgo0

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.5.1
Affected Plugin
Academy LMS
Affected Version
<= 3.5.0
CVSS
9.8Critical
Weakness type
CWE-639 · Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key
CVE
CVE-2025-15521
View all Academy LMS vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2025-15521 is a critical-severity Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key vulnerability in the Academy LMS WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.5.0. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 3.5.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2026, reported by vgo0.

Vulnerability Overview

The Academy LMS – WordPress LMS Plugin for Complete eLearning Solution plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation via account takeover in all versions up to, and including, 3.5.0. This is due to the plugin not properly validating a user's identity prior to updating their password and relying solely on a publicly-exposed nonce for authorization. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to change arbitrary user's password, including administrators, and gain access to their account.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-639: Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key

Reaching this weakness in Academy LMS <= 3.5.0 takes no account at all. Authorization bypass through a user-controlled key, often called insecure direct object reference, means the application looks up a record by an identifier from the request without checking that the caller owns it.

Changing a number in the request is enough to read or modify other users' records, which on commerce and membership sites means customer data. For Academy LMS the fix is 3.5.1: builds <= 3.5.0 are affected, anything from 3.5.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.5.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

This one needs no account at all, which puts it outside what login hardening can reach; WordSec's login security narrows the account-level paths around it, and the firewall is what inspects the request itself. None of that substitutes for the fix: Academy LMS 3.5.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-15521https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/6687ebbe-fdf4-4ecb-bf59-034bb4b0104chttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-15521

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C