Mentoring <= 1.2.8 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation in mentoring_process_registration
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.2.9
- Affected Plugin
- Mentoring
- Affected Version
<= 1.2.8- CVSS
- 9.8Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management
- CVE
CVE-2025-13618
At a glance
CVE-2025-13618 is a critical-severity Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in the Mentoring WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.2.8. 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 1.2.9; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2026, reported by シルAsuna.
Vulnerability Overview
The Mentoring plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.2.8. This is due to the plugin not properly restricting the roles that users can register with in the mentoring_process_registration() function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to register with administrator-level user accounts.
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
Mentoring <= 1.2.8 carries this weakness at mentoring_process_registration(), 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 Mentoring the fix is 1.2.9: builds <= 1.2.8 are affected, anything from 1.2.9 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.2.9, 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: Mentoring 1.2.9 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
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