CVE-2025-14397 is a vulnerability identified in the Postem Ipsum plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 3.0.1. The root cause is a missing authorization check (CWE-862) in the function postem_ipsum_generate_users(), which fails to verify if the authenticated user has the necessary capabilities before allowing user account creation. This flaw allows any authenticated user with at least Subscriber-level privileges to create new user accounts with administrator roles, effectively escalating their privileges to full administrative control over the WordPress site. The vulnerability is remotely exploitable over the network (AV:N), requires low attack complexity (AC:L), and only requires privileges of a low-level authenticated user (PR:L) without any user interaction (UI:N). The impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability is high (C:H/I:H/A:H), as attackers can fully control the site, modify content, install backdoors, or disrupt services. No patches or exploit code are currently publicly available, but the vulnerability is rated with a CVSS 3.1 score of 8.8, indicating a high severity. The plugin is widely used in WordPress environments, making this a significant threat vector for websites relying on it. The vulnerability was published on December 13, 2025, and is tracked by Wordfence and the CVE database.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to websites running WordPress with the Postem Ipsum plugin. Successful exploitation can lead to complete site takeover, allowing attackers to steal sensitive data, deface websites, inject malicious code, or use the compromised site as a pivot point for further network intrusion. This can result in reputational damage, regulatory non-compliance (e.g., GDPR violations), financial losses, and operational disruptions. Organizations in sectors such as government, finance, healthcare, and e-commerce are particularly vulnerable due to the sensitive nature of their data and services. The ease of exploitation by low-privileged authenticated users increases the threat surface, especially in environments where user account management is lax or where subscriber accounts are widely distributed. Given the high adoption of WordPress in Europe, the potential scope of impact is broad, affecting both small businesses and large enterprises.

1. Immediately audit all WordPress sites for the presence of the Postem Ipsum plugin and identify versions up to 3.0.1. 2. Restrict plugin access to trusted users only, ideally limiting Subscriber-level accounts from accessing plugin functionalities until a patch is available. 3. Monitor user account creation logs for suspicious activity, especially the creation of new administrator accounts. 4. Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all administrative accounts to reduce the risk of account takeover. 5. Use Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block attempts to invoke the vulnerable function or unusual user creation patterns. 6. Follow the plugin vendor’s updates closely and apply patches as soon as they are released. 7. Consider temporarily disabling or uninstalling the plugin if it is not critical to operations until a secure version is available. 8. Educate site administrators about the risks of privilege escalation and enforce the principle of least privilege for user roles.