Frontend Admin by DynamiApps <= 3.28.36 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Edit User Form

The Frontend Admin by DynamiApps plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in versions up to and including 3.28.36. This is due to insufficient authorization checks in the role field update mechanism combined with overly permissive capabilities for the admin_form post type. The admin_form custom post type uses 'capability_type' => 'page', which grants editors the ability to create and edit forms. When an editor creates an edit_user form, they can manipulate the form configuration to include 'administrator' in the role_options array by directly submitting POST data to wp-admin/post.php, bypassing the UI restrictions in feadmin_get_user_roles(). When the form is subsequently submitted, the pre_update_value() function in class-role.php only validates that the submitted role exists in the form's role_options array (lines 107-110), but fails to verify that the current user has permission to assign that specific role. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to first register as editors (via a public new_user form), then create an edit_user form with administrator in the allowed roles, and finally use that form to escalate their own privileges to administrator.

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: Frontend Admin by DynamiApps 3.29.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

• Login Security
• Alerts