CVE-2025-13675: Tiger WordPress Theme Privilege Escalation

CVE-2025-13675 Overview

CVE-2025-13675 is a critical privilege escalation vulnerability affecting the Tiger Social Network theme for WordPress. The vulnerability exists in all versions up to and including 101.2.1, allowing unauthenticated attackers to register new user accounts with administrator privileges due to improper role validation in the paypal-submit.php file.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can gain full administrator access to WordPress sites by exploiting the registration process, potentially leading to complete site takeover, data theft, and malicious content injection.

Affected Products

• Tiger Social Network Theme for WordPress versions up to and including 101.2.1
• WordPress installations using the vulnerable Tiger theme

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-11-27 - CVE-2025-13675 published to NVD
• 2025-12-01 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-13675

Vulnerability Analysis

This privilege escalation vulnerability stems from CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management). The paypal-submit.php file in the Tiger theme processes user registration requests without properly validating or restricting the user role parameter. When a new user registers through this endpoint, the application fails to enforce role restrictions, allowing the attacker to specify any WordPress role, including administrator.

The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it requires no authentication to exploit. An attacker can simply send a crafted registration request to the vulnerable endpoint, specifying the administrator role in the request parameters. Once registered with administrator privileges, the attacker gains complete control over the WordPress installation.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is the lack of input validation and role restriction in the user registration workflow within paypal-submit.php. The theme does not implement proper access controls to restrict which user roles can be assigned during the registration process. This represents a fundamental security oversight where user-supplied input directly controls security-critical functionality without verification.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based and requires no authentication or user interaction. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability remotely by:

1. Identifying a WordPress site using the vulnerable Tiger theme
2. Crafting a malicious registration request to paypal-submit.php
3. Including the administrator role parameter in the registration request
4. Submitting the request to create a new administrator account
5. Logging in with the newly created administrator credentials to gain full site control

The exploitation mechanism relies on manipulating the user registration parameters. When the paypal-submit.php file processes the registration, it accepts the role parameter without validation, directly assigning the specified role to the new user account. This allows attackers to bypass the intended registration flow that would normally assign limited user roles.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-13675

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected administrator accounts appearing in the WordPress user database
• Registration requests to paypal-submit.php containing unusual role parameters
• New administrator accounts created without corresponding legitimate registration activity
• Access logs showing POST requests to paypal-submit.php with role-related parameters

Detection Strategies

• Monitor WordPress user creation events for accounts with administrator privileges that were not created through normal administrative processes
• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block registration requests containing elevated role parameters
• Review access logs for suspicious POST requests to paypal-submit.php endpoints
• Deploy file integrity monitoring to detect unauthorized changes following potential exploitation

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable WordPress audit logging to track all user account creation and role changes
• Configure alerts for new administrator account registrations
• Monitor web server logs for requests to paypal-submit.php with suspicious parameters
• Implement real-time monitoring of WordPress user table for unauthorized privilege assignments

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-13675

Immediate Actions Required

• Review all WordPress administrator accounts and remove any unauthorized or suspicious accounts immediately
• Disable or remove the Tiger theme if running version 101.2.1 or earlier until a patch is available
• Implement WAF rules to block requests to paypal-submit.php containing role escalation parameters
• Change credentials for all legitimate administrator accounts as a precaution

Patch Information

Check the ThemeForest Product Overview for the latest theme version and security updates. Additionally, review the Wordfence Vulnerability Report for detailed vulnerability information and remediation guidance. Update to a patched version of the Tiger theme as soon as one becomes available.

Workarounds

• Rename or remove the paypal-submit.php file if the PayPal registration functionality is not required
• Implement server-level access controls to restrict access to the vulnerable endpoint
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall with rules specifically blocking role parameter manipulation in registration requests
• Consider switching to an alternative WordPress theme until the vulnerability is addressed