Plugin Name	Frontend Admin by DynamiApps
Type of Vulnerability	Privilege Escalation
CVE Number	CVE-2025-14736
Urgency	High
CVE Publish Date	2026-01-09
Source URL	CVE-2025-14736

Critical: Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation in “Frontend Admin by DynamiApps” (acf-frontend-form-element) — What You Need to Know and How to Protect Your WordPress Sites

Date: 9 January 2026
Author: Managed-WP Security Team

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Summary

A critical vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-14736 has been disclosed in the WordPress plugin Frontend Admin by DynamiApps (plugin slug: acf-frontend-form-element), affecting all versions up to and including 3.28.25. This flaw permits unauthenticated attackers to escalate privileges to administrator level by exploiting a weakness in the validation of role-related form fields. This article provides a detailed analysis of the vulnerability, outlines the risks it poses, and offers actionable recommendations for immediate mitigation, incident response, and long-term hardening. WordPress site administrators should prioritize review and patching of any affected installations without delay.

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TL;DR (Practical Quick Checklist)

• Affected Plugin: Frontend Admin by DynamiApps (acf-frontend-form-element) — versions ≤ 3.28.25
• CVE Identifier: CVE-2025-14736
• Severity Level: High (CVSS 9.8)
• Impact: Unauthenticated privilege escalation to Administrator, enabling full site control
• Resolution: Upgrade immediately to version 3.28.26 or later
• Interim Mitigations (if immediate patching is not feasible):
  • Block requests with suspicious role parameters using a Web Application Firewall (WAF)
  • Limit or disable public access to frontend forms/endpoints
  • Perform a thorough audit of user accounts and rotate credentials
  • Monitor for indicators of compromise and restore from verified clean backups if necessary

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Why This Matters: A Clear Explanation

WordPress sites often utilize frontend form plugins that allow visitors to submit content, register accounts, or modify user data. These forms can include input fields for username, email, and sometimes user roles. When a plugin does not properly validate or restrict the “role” parameter, attackers may exploit this to assign themselves elevated privileges such as Administrator access. This vulnerability enables unauthenticated actors to manipulate role assignments via frontend endpoints, escalating their privileges without authentication.

The consequences of such privilege escalation include installation of backdoors, unauthorized account creation, content alteration, data leakage, lateral movement within the site, and even complete takeover. For managed or hosted environments, this breach can severely affect business continuity, reputation, and data security.

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Technical Overview (High-Level and Defensive)

This vulnerability arises due to insufficient validation and authorization of a role-related parameter in the plugin’s frontend form handling functions. In broad terms, the attack vector follows this pattern:

1. The plugin exposes publicly accessible frontend endpoints that accept POST requests.
2. These endpoints process form data including a “role” parameter or similar user capability inputs.
3. The plugin does not authenticate or properly validate the “role” parameter on unauthenticated requests, nor verifies nonces or user capabilities.
4. An attacker crafts unauthenticated requests that include a role value such as “administrator,” creating or modifying user accounts with elevated privileges.
5. Gaining administrator access grants full control, allowing the attacker to perform any actions on the site.

Note: Exploit payloads or proof-of-concept code are intentionally withheld to prevent misuse. This article focuses on detection, prevention, and response.

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Affected Versions & Remediation

• Affected Plugin: acf-frontend-form-element (Frontend Admin by DynamiApps) — versions ≤ 3.28.25
• Fixed In: Version 3.28.26
• CVE Reference: CVE-2025-14736

Remediation Priority: Upgrade to version 3.28.26 or later immediately on all affected sites. Prioritize business-critical or high-traffic installations.

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Immediate Actions for Site Owners

Administrators should take the following steps immediately:

1. Update the Plugin:
   – Upgrade acf-frontend-form-element to version 3.28.26 or higher.
   – Confirm auto-update mechanisms successfully applied the patch if enabled.
2. Apply Mitigations if Immediate Patching is Impossible:
   – Configure your firewall or WAF to block unauthenticated POST requests containing the parameter name “role” or similar.
   – Disable public user registrations temporarily if they are not needed.
   – Restrict access to frontend form endpoints via IP whitelisting, authentication, or blocking.
   – Enforce CSRF protection (e.g., nonce validation) wherever feasible.
3. Audit User Accounts and Roles:
   – Review your wp_users and wp_usermeta tables for suspicious additions or modifications.
   – Remove unknown administrator accounts and rotate passwords of all admin users.
4. Rotate Credentials & Keys:
   – Force password resets for administrator accounts.
   – Rotate API keys and any integration secrets.
   – Update WordPress salts in wp-config.php and inform users accordingly.
5. Monitor & Scan:
   – Perform full malware scans on the server and WordPress installation.
   – Check file integrity for unauthorized changes.
   – Analyze logs for anomalous POST requests to form endpoints containing suspicious role values.
6. If Compromise is Suspected:
   – Place the site in maintenance mode or take it offline.
   – Restore from verified clean backups dated prior to the incident.
   – If no clean backup exists, conduct a full incident response including forensic evidence collection and cleanup.

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Suggested WAF Rules (Example Patterns)

Below are proposed WAF rules to mitigate attacks related to this vulnerability. These rules must be thoroughly tested in staging environments to avoid blocking legitimate traffic.

1. Block unauthenticated POST requests containing the “role” parameter:
IF request.method == POST
AND request.body contains /(\brole\b)/
AND NOT user.isAuthenticated
THEN BLOCK

2. Block POST requests with dangerous role values:
IF request.method == POST
AND request.body matches /role=.*(administrator|admin|super_admin)/
THEN BLOCK

3. Restrict access to known plugin endpoints:
IF request.path contains "/acf-frontend" OR "/frontend-admin"
AND request.method IN (POST, PUT, PATCH)
AND NOT request.fromTrustedIP
THEN CHALLENGE or BLOCK

4. Rate-limit anonymous POST requests to form handlers.

Important: Configure these rules carefully to minimize false positives. Legitimate submissions can be allowed through stricter authentication and nonce validation.

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Detection: Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) & Queries

Effective detection involves monitoring for suspicious activity that may indicate exploitation of this vulnerability. Consider the following diagnostics:

1. List Recent Administrator Users (WP-CLI):

   wp user list --role=administrator --format=csv

   Review for unknown or recently created admin accounts.

2. Query Capability Changes in Database:

   SELECT user_id, meta_value
   FROM wp_usermeta
   WHERE meta_key LIKE '%capabilities%'
   ORDER BY user_id;

   Investigate serialized entries granting administrator privileges.

3. Audit Login Attempts & Logs:
   – Look for suspicious POST requests to frontend endpoints.
   – Search for unusual User-Agent strings or repeated IP addresses.
   – Examine successful logins from unfamiliar IPs following suspicious activity.
4. Check for Malicious File Changes:
   – Compare plugin directories against clean copies.
   – Find recently modified files in uploads with:

   find wp-content/uploads -type f -mtime -14 -exec ls -la {} \;

5. Review Scheduled Tasks (Cron Jobs):

   wp cron event list

   Identify and remove unauthorized or suspicious cron jobs.

6. Content Integrity:
   – Monitor for unexpected page edits, new posts, or defacement.

If these indicators confirm a breach, initiate containment and remediation immediately.

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Incident Response & Recovery Checklist

In case of confirmed exploitation, follow this structured response:

1. Containment:
   – Take the site offline or block the attacker’s IP addresses.
   – Disable the affected plugin if possible, prior to patching.
2. Preserve Evidence:
   – Create read-only snapshots of server and database for forensics.
   – Save detailed logs from web servers and applications.
3. Eradication:
   – Remove malicious admin accounts and backdoors.
   – Restore clean plugin, theme, and core files.
   – Delete unfamiliar scheduled tasks and remove injected code.
4. Recovery:
   – Restore from clean backups if available.
   – Upgrade all software components to patched versions.
   – Enforce password and key rotation.
5. Post-Incident:
   – Conduct root cause analysis.
   – Enhance security measures, including WAF rules.
   – Notify stakeholders about incident impact and remediation.

If lacking in-house expertise, seek out experienced incident response professionals.

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Preventive Hardening: Minimize Future Risks

After addressing this vulnerability, implement comprehensive defense in depth:

1. Principle of Least Privilege:
   – Limit Administrator roles. Use Editor or Contributor roles for day-to-day tasks.
2. Control User Registrations:
   – Disable public registrations unless necessary.
   – Require CAPTCHAs, email verification, and admin approval when enabled.
3. Plugin Maintenance:
   – Regularly update all plugins.
   – Remove unused or unmaintained plugins.
   – Subscribe to reliable vulnerability intelligence.
4. Secure Form Handling:
   – Enforce nonce and capability validation on role-changing forms.
   – Avoid accepting role parameters from untrusted sources.
5. Network-layer Defenses:
   – Deploy Managed-WP firewall or robust WAF for traffic inspection and virtual patching.
   – Use IP whitelisting for administration endpoints.
6. File Integrity Assurance:
   – Implement file integrity monitoring solutions.
   – Harden file permissions to avoid world-writable directories.
7. Reliable Backup Strategies:
   – Maintain frequent, tested, off-site and immutable backups.
   – Regularly verify backup integrity and recovery procedures.
8. Logging and Alerting:
   – Centralize log management.
   – Configure alerts for suspicious account changes, mass content edits, and role modifications.

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What to Watch For in Logs

• POST requests containing “role” or similar parameters.
• Sudden surge in new user registrations from a single IP or IP subnet.
• New administrator accounts created during unusual times.
• Login attempts using recently created accounts.
• Requests with uncommon User-Agent headers or known malicious fingerprints.
• Serialized or JSON payloads with unexpected roles or capabilities.

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Organizational Advice for Agencies and Hosts

• Maintain an up-to-date inventory of all managed sites and plugin versions.
• Implement automated patch management and rapid deployment pipelines.
• Offer virtual patching and vulnerability blocking at the network edge while official updates are pending.
• Provide managed detection and response services tailored for WordPress security.
• Communicate proactively with clients regarding vulnerabilities and necessary remediation.

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Why WAFs and Virtual Patching Matter — But Do Not Replace Updates

Deploying a Web Application Firewall with virtual patching capabilities offers immediate protection during the window between vulnerability disclosure and patch application. Key advantages include:

• Blocking malicious requests targeting role manipulation.
• Rate-limiting and challenging suspect traffic.
• Generating alerts and logs to accelerate incident detection.

However, WAFs are complementary tools and cannot replace the necessity of timely patches. Attackers may find ways to bypass imperfect rulesets. Maintaining up-to-date software remains essential.

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Example Admin Audit Commands You Can Run Now

• List all administrators with creation dates:

  wp user list --role=administrator --fields=ID,user_login,user_registered,user_email --format=table

• Query for users with administrator capabilities directly in the database:

  SELECT u.ID, u.user_login, u.user_email, m.meta_value
  FROM wp_users u
  JOIN wp_usermeta m ON u.ID = m.user_id
  WHERE m.meta_key LIKE '%capabilities%'
  AND m.meta_value LIKE '%administrator%';

• Find recently changed plugin files:

  find wp-content/plugins/acf-frontend-form-element -type f -mtime -14 -ls

• Look for suspicious PHP files in uploads directory:

  find wp-content/uploads -type f -name "*.php" -ls

If anomalies are detected, isolate your site, collect evidence, and initiate incident procedures.

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Lessons Learned and Broader Security Takeaways

• Frontend functionality interacting with user roles or capabilities must be rigorously protected by server-side authorization and nonce verification.
• Public endpoints accepting sensitive parameters increase the attack surface and must be strictly controlled.
• Layered defenses — including patching, WAFs, monitoring, and user audits — significantly reduce risk and exposure time.
• Regular security audits of users, plugins, and logs improve detection and response capabilities.

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Final Recommendations (Prioritized)

1. Upgrade acf-frontend-form-element to 3.28.26 or later on every affected site without delay.
2. Audit administrator users: remove any unknown accounts and enforce credential rotation.
3. Implement WAF rules to block unauthorized role modifications and suspicious form submissions during patch rollout.
4. Conduct file and malware scans to detect and remove webshells or backdoors.
5. Harden registration and form endpoints by adding nonces, CAPTCHAs, and authentication checks.
6. Maintain documented incident response protocols and frequent backup validation.

For large-scale environments, automate version monitoring and orchestrate rapid coordinated updates to minimize exposure.

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Closing Thoughts

This vulnerability serves as a stark reminder that user-facing features which modify roles or permissions require the strictest security controls. If you have not yet applied the patch, please prioritize updating today. Managed-WP is ready to support you with remediation, virtual patching, and expert security guidance.

Stay vigilant and practice regular security audits — prevention combined with rapid incident response is the best defense for WordPress sites.

— Managed-WP Security Team

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