CVE-2023-4153
BAN Users <= 1.5.3 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Settings Update & Privilege Escalation
- 8.8HighCVSS base score
- 0.87%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 41% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
The BAN Users plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in versions up to, and including, 1.5.3 due to a missing capability check on the 'w3dev_save_ban_user_settings_callback' function. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with minimal permissions such as a subscriber, to modify the plugin settings to access the ban and unban functionality and set the role of the unbanned user.
Timeline
ID reserved
By Wordfence
- 40 days later
· 40 days later
Published
- 3 years later
· 3 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordfenceCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High8.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High8.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.87% · top 41% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.8.
Affected products
References
References3
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/af6bd2db-47a4-4381-a881-d5f97a159f8d?source=cve (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ban-users/tags/1.5.3/include/ajax.php#L199 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ban-users/tags/1.5.3/include/ajax.php#L109 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2023-54033 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2023-4153)Record last updated .