Melapress Role Editor <= 1.1.1 - Improper Authorization to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation via Secondary Role Assignment
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.2.0
- Affected Plugin
- Melapress Role Editor
- Affected Version
<= 1.1.1- CVSS
- 8.8High
- Weakness type
- CWE-863 · Incorrect Authorization
- CVE
CVE-2025-14866
At a glance
CVE-2025-14866 is a high-severity Incorrect Authorization vulnerability in the Melapress Role Editor WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.1.1. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Subscriber level or above. The issue is fixed in version 1.2.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2026, reported by Sarawut Poolkhet (MisterHelloz).
Vulnerability Overview
The Melapress Role Editor plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.1.1. This is due to a misconfigured capability check on the 'save_secondary_roles_field' function. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to assign themselves additional roles including 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 interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization
Melapress Role Editor <= 1.1.1 carries this weakness at save_secondary_roles_field, and reaching it takes an account at Subscriber level or above. Incorrect authorization means a permission check exists but evaluates the wrong thing, so it passes for callers it was meant to stop.
The action runs for users the code intended to exclude, with the same effect as having no check at all. For Melapress Role Editor the fix is 1.2.0: builds <= 1.1.1 are affected, anything from 1.2.0 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.2.0, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: Melapress Role Editor 1.2.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
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