CVE-2025-3761: WordPress My Tickets Privilege Escalation

CVE-2025-3761 Overview

CVE-2025-3761 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in the My Tickets – Accessible Event Ticketing plugin for WordPress. The flaw affects all versions up to and including 2.0.16. The mt_save_profile() function fails to restrict access when users update profile roles. Authenticated attackers with Subscriber-level access or higher can elevate their privileges to administrator. The vulnerability is classified under [CWE-269] Improper Privilege Management.

Critical Impact
Any authenticated user with at least Subscriber privileges can promote themselves to administrator, resulting in full takeover of the affected WordPress site.

Affected Products

My Tickets – Accessible Event Ticketing plugin for WordPress
All versions up to and including 2.0.16
WordPress sites permitting user registration are at elevated risk

Discovery Timeline

2025-04-24 - CVE-2025-3761 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2026-04-15 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-3761

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in the mt_save_profile() function within the My Tickets plugin. This function processes user profile updates submitted through the plugin interface. The function does not validate whether the requesting user has the authority to assign roles. As a result, the function accepts a role parameter from any authenticated user and writes it to the user record. An attacker with Subscriber privileges can submit a crafted profile update request and assign themselves the administrator role. Once promoted, the attacker gains full control over the WordPress installation, including the ability to install plugins, modify content, exfiltrate user data, and execute arbitrary PHP through theme or plugin editors.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing capability checks on a role assignment code path. The mt_save_profile() handler trusts user-supplied input for role assignment without verifying the caller holds the promote_users or edit_users capability. This is a classic broken access control pattern in which authentication is checked but authorization is not enforced for the privileged action.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based and requires only low-level authenticated access. An attacker registers a Subscriber account on any vulnerable WordPress site, or compromises an existing low-privilege account. The attacker then submits a POST request to the profile save endpoint exposed by the plugin, including a role field set to administrator. The plugin updates the user's role, and subsequent requests from the attacker are processed with administrative privileges. No user interaction from a victim is required. Technical details are available in the WordPress Change Log Entry and the Wordfence Vulnerability Report.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-3761

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected user accounts holding the administrator role, especially accounts originally created as Subscribers
POST requests to admin-ajax endpoints or profile save handlers containing a role parameter from non-administrative sessions
New plugin or theme installations performed by recently promoted accounts
Modifications to wp_usermeta entries setting wp_capabilities to administrator for previously low-privilege users

Detection Strategies

Audit the WordPress users table for accounts whose role changed from Subscriber to administrator without a corresponding administrative action
Inspect web server logs for POST requests to My Tickets profile endpoints containing role assignment parameters
Compare current site administrator counts against baseline values and alert on increases
Review the plugin version installed across managed WordPress fleets and flag any instance at version 2.0.16 or earlier

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward WordPress application logs and audit events to a central log analytics platform for review
Enable role change alerting in WordPress security tooling to catch privilege modifications in real time
Monitor authentication patterns from accounts that perform administrative actions shortly after registration

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-3761

Immediate Actions Required

Update the My Tickets plugin to a version newer than 2.0.16 on every affected WordPress site
Audit all administrator accounts and remove any that cannot be verified as legitimate
Reset passwords for remaining administrator accounts and rotate API keys or secrets stored in the database
Disable open user registration until the patch is applied if the site does not require self-service signup

Patch Information

The vendor addressed the issue in the commit referenced in the WordPress Change Log Entry. The fix adds capability checks to mt_save_profile() so that only users with the appropriate WordPress capabilities can modify role assignments. Site operators should install the latest version of the plugin from the WordPress plugin directory.

Workarounds

Deactivate the My Tickets plugin until it can be updated to a patched release
Restrict access to wp-admin and AJAX endpoints by source IP at the web server or web application firewall
Set define('DISALLOW_USER_REGISTRATION', true); style controls or disable the WordPress "Anyone can register" setting
Apply a WAF rule blocking POST requests to plugin endpoints that contain a role=administrator parameter from non-administrator sessions

bash

# Identify users assigned administrator role via WP-CLI
wp user list --role=administrator --fields=ID,user_login,user_email,user_registered

# Demote a suspicious account back to subscriber
wp user set-role <user_id> subscriber

# Update the My Tickets plugin to the latest available version
wp plugin update my-tickets