Material Dashboard <= 1.4.6 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.4.7
- Affected Plugin
- Material Dashboard
- Affected Version
<= 1.4.6- CVSS
- 9.8Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management
- CVE
CVE-2025-32486
At a glance
CVE-2025-32486 is a critical-severity Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in the Material Dashboard WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.4.6. 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 1.4.7; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2025, reported by astra.r3verii.
Vulnerability Overview
The Material Dashboard plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.4.6. This is due to the plugin not utilizing sufficiently random values in the publicAjaxHandler() function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to elevate their privileges to that of an administrator.
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-269: Improper Privilege Management
Material Dashboard <= 1.4.6 carries this weakness at publicAjaxHandler(), and reaching it takes no account at all. Improper privilege management means the code lets an account end up with capabilities its role should not have.
It converts a low-privileged account into an administrative one, which makes every other restriction on the site irrelevant. For Material Dashboard the fix is 1.4.7: builds <= 1.4.6 are affected, anything from 1.4.7 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.4.7, 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: Material Dashboard 1.4.7 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
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