CVE-2025-47539 - Incorrect Privilege Assignment in Themewinter Eventin Lets Users Escalate Privileges

If you build WordPress sites with events, you may have heard of the Eventin plugin by Themewinter. It helps you manage events with booking features, tickets, schedules, and more. But a recent serious security flaw—designated as CVE-2025-47539—was found in this plugin. This issue lets a regular user raise their privileges, potentially gaining access to administrator-only features and functions.

In this post, we'll break down what CVE-2025-47539 is, how the vulnerability shows up in the code, share legitimate references, explain a simple exploit scenario, and suggest what you should do next.

What Is CVE-2025-47539?

CVE-2025-47539 is classified as an Incorrect Privilege Assignment vulnerability. This simply means that the plugin accidentally gives more power to users than it should. It impacts all Eventin plugin versions up to 4..26 (since "n/a" through "4..26").

In some workflows inside Eventin, user input (or a user's role) is not properly checked before handing out sensitive permissions. That means a normal user or even a subscriber could take actions only an administrator should have.

How Does This Happen? (Code Snippet)

Let’s look at a simplified snippet (based on real plugin logic) to show how this problem might occur:

// Imagine this inside includes/user-actions.php

if ( isset( $_POST['eventin_action'] ) && $_POST['eventin_action'] == 'create_event' ) {
    $user_id = get_current_user_id();

    // 🚨 The check here is missing or incorrect!
    // It allows *any* logged in user to create events.
    eventin_create_event( $_POST['event_title'], $_POST['event_data'], $user_id );
}

What should have happened is a check like

if ( current_user_can( 'manage_options' ) ) {  // Only admins
    eventin_create_event( ... );
}

But because the check is missing, any logged in user can perform event creation—with possible escalation to admin activities depending on the plugin’s detailed permissions routines.

A normal user logs in (say, a "subscriber").

2. They submit a POST request to an endpoint (like admin-ajax.php?action=eventin_action) with the parameters to create or manage an event.

The plugin code, missing checks, processes their request as if they had admin rights.

4. If event creation or modification lets them inject arbitrary data (for example, changing event authorship or attaching files), attackers could leverage that to get further access.

Example Exploit Using curl

curl -X POST -d "eventin_action=create_event&event_title=Hacked&event_data=<script>alert(1)</script>" \
    -b "wordpress_logged_in_<hash>=user_cookie" \
    https://vulnerable-site.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php

This could create a rogue event or potentially hand even more permissions by exploiting other plugin features chained with this flaw.

References

- Original Plugin Page – Eventin by Themewinter
- NIST NVD - CVE-2025-47539 *(replace with official link when available)*
- Wordfence Vulnerability Database
- WPScan Vulnerability Entry
- Themewinter Official Security Updates

Conclusion

CVE-2025-47539 is a classic example of what happens when plugins forget to verify users before allowing sensitive actions. If you run a site with Eventin, update as soon as possible. Make sure plugin developers are following the principle of least privilege—never trust user input, and always check roles!

Staying up-to-date and being aware of plugin attacks is your best defense.

*Note: This write-up is based on public advisories and developer research. Always refer to official sources for latest patch details.*

Timeline

Published on: 05/23/2025 13:15:39 UTC
Last modified on: 05/23/2025 15:54:42 UTC