CVE-2025-11620 is a vulnerability classified under CWE-862 (Missing Authorization) found in the 'Multiple Roles per User' WordPress plugin developed by jemoreto. This plugin allows assigning multiple roles to a single user, enhancing role management flexibility. However, in all versions up to and including 1.0, the plugin fails to perform proper capability checks in the 'mrpu_add_multiple_roles_ui' and 'mrpu_save_multiple_user_roles' functions. These functions handle the user interface for adding roles and the saving of multiple user roles, respectively. The missing authorization check means that any authenticated user with the 'edit_users' capability—which is typically granted to roles like Editor or Administrator—can manipulate other users' roles without further permission validation. This includes the ability to promote lower-privileged users to Administrator or demote Administrators to less privileged roles, effectively enabling privilege escalation or sabotage. The vulnerability is remotely exploitable over the network without user interaction, but requires the attacker to have an account with 'edit_users' capability, which is a high privilege level. The CVSS v3.1 score of 7.2 reflects the high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, given that role changes can lead to full site compromise. No patches or exploit code are publicly available at the time of publication, but the risk is significant due to the potential for misuse by insiders or compromised accounts.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a critical risk to WordPress-based websites and intranet portals that utilize the 'Multiple Roles per User' plugin. Unauthorized role modifications can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, full administrative control over the website, and potential defacement or data destruction. This can disrupt business operations, damage reputation, and lead to regulatory non-compliance, especially under GDPR where unauthorized access to personal data is a serious violation. Attackers exploiting this flaw could create backdoors by promoting accounts to Administrator or lock out legitimate administrators by demoting them, severely impacting availability and integrity. Given WordPress's widespread use across European SMEs, public institutions, and e-commerce platforms, the scope of impact is broad. The vulnerability also increases insider threat risks and complicates incident response due to the stealthy nature of role changes. Organizations relying on this plugin without strict access controls are particularly vulnerable.

1. Immediately audit user accounts with the 'edit_users' capability and restrict this privilege to only trusted administrators. 2. If possible, disable or uninstall the 'Multiple Roles per User' plugin until a patch is available. 3. Implement strict monitoring and alerting on user role changes within WordPress logs to detect unauthorized modifications quickly. 4. Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all accounts with elevated privileges to reduce the risk of account compromise. 5. Use WordPress security plugins that can enforce granular capability checks or provide role change approval workflows. 6. Regularly back up WordPress sites and databases to enable recovery in case of compromise. 7. Stay updated with vendor advisories and apply patches promptly once released. 8. Consider deploying a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with custom rules to detect and block suspicious role modification attempts. 9. Conduct periodic security reviews of WordPress user roles and permissions to ensure least privilege principles are maintained.