Privilege Escalation in SureTriggers Plugin Puts WordPress Sites at Risk

A Critical Oversight in Role Assignment Logic

Cory Marsh
Cory Marsh
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Cory Marsh has over 20 years Internet security experience. He is a lead developer on the BitFire project and regularly releases PHP security and programming videos on BitFire's you tube channel.
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suretriggers, 100,000+ sites hacked
Account Takeover Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation

SureTriggers is designed to simplify automation in WordPress, but a recent security flaw revealed just how complex privilege management must be. In versions up to and including 1.0.82, the plugin suffers from an incorrect privilege assignment vulnerability that could allow unauthenticated attackers to escalate their access to administrator level. While a fix has been issued, BitFire provides a preventive solution that stops privilege tampering at runtime before any changes can be committed.

View CVE Report: CVE-2025-27007

View On WordPress.org: suretriggers

View On Trac: plugins.trac.wordpress.org


SureTriggers

"SureTriggers is an automation platform for WordPress that connects various plugins and third-party services to create workflows, webhooks, and user-triggered automations without custom coding."

-- suretriggers
  • Build multi-step automation workflows inside WordPress
  • Trigger actions based on form entries, user logins, and more
  • Integrate with popular plugins like LearnDash, WooCommerce, and Elementor
  • Supports conditional logic, webhooks, and REST API endpoints
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an efficient alternative for users who are unable to utilize Redis or Memcached servers.


BitFire's 0-day protection of CVE-2025-27007 vulnerability

The Gory Details

The vulnerability in SureTriggers arises from a lack of proper validation around role assignment. Versions up to 1.0.82 fail to enforce adequate permission checks when assigning capabilities to user accounts. This allows unauthenticated attackers to exploit endpoint logic and create new accounts with administrative privileges. The vulnerability requires no authentication or user interaction and is accessible over the network, earning it a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.8.

Mitigating the Risk

The vendor has released version 1.0.83, which resolves the issue by correcting access control logic during role assignment. Website owners are strongly encouraged to update immediately and review existing user accounts for unauthorized administrative access that may have occurred prior to the patch.

Why BitFire?

BitFire’s Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP) engine continuously monitors critical database operations such as account creation and role modifications. It blocks any attempt to escalate privileges or create administrative users unless the session is already authenticated as an administrator. This real-time enforcement ensures that even if application logic fails, privilege boundaries remain intact.

The Bottom Line

Incorrect privilege assignment remains a high-impact class of vulnerability in WordPress plugins. Left unmonitored, it can lead to full site compromise. BitFire adds a critical layer of defense by enforcing privilege-based policies at runtime, giving administrators assurance that unauthorized access attempts will be stopped before they result in persistent compromise.

Removed Code
src/Controllers/RestController.php
Replaced Code
if ( ! user_can( $user, 'administrator' ) ) { return new WP_REST_Response( ['success' => false, 'data' => 'Not allowed'], 403); }