A critical security flaw has been found in the PageLines Platform theme for WordPress. This vulnerability, identified as CVE-2015-10143, allows unauthorized individuals to gain significant control over your website. It’s a serious issue because attackers can change important settings without needing to log in, potentially taking over the site completely.
Specifically, the flaw enables unauthenticated attackers to alter various options on a WordPress site. This means a malicious actor could change the default role for new user registrations to “administrator.” If user registration is enabled, they could then create an administrator account for themselves, granting them full control over your vulnerable website.
CVE Details
- Product: PageLines Platform Theme for WordPress
- Published Date: July 25, 2025
- Severity: Critical (CVSS Score: 9.8)
- Status: Analyzed
Affected Products
This critical vulnerability affects the PageLines Platform theme for WordPress. All versions of the theme up to, but not including, 1.4.4 are at risk. This means if you are running version 1.4.3 or older, your site is vulnerable.
Current Status
The vulnerability has been thoroughly analyzed. Details about its nature and potential impact are well-documented, making it crucial for users of affected versions to take immediate action.
Severity Level
With a CVSS score of 9.8, this vulnerability is rated as CRITICAL. This rating indicates a very high risk. Exploitation is easy and can be carried out remotely by attackers without any authentication. The potential impact is also severe, leading to a complete compromise of the website, including data modification and full administrative access.
Possible Solutions
To protect your WordPress site from this critical vulnerability, follow these recommendations:
- Update Your Theme: The most crucial step is to update your PageLines Platform theme for WordPress to a patched version. Based on the vulnerability description, versions 1.4.4 and newer should address this flaw. Always ensure you are running the latest available secure version of your theme.
- Implement a Temporary Patch (if immediate update is not possible): A community-contributed patch in the form of a WordPress plugin has been shared, which aims to stop the exploit for older versions. This can be found at: https://gist.github.com/Pross/769de6e9219705041c67. This should only be considered a temporary measure until a full theme update can be performed.
- Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF): A robust WAF can provide a virtual patch for your website, blocking malicious traffic attempting to exploit this vulnerability before it reaches your site. Services like Sucuri’s Website Firewall can offer this layer of protection.
- Disable User Registration: If not essential for your website’s functionality, consider temporarily disabling user registration to prevent attackers from leveraging the default role escalation.
References
Security Advisory – Vulnerabilities in Pagelines for WordPress
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/master/modules/exploits/unix/webapp/wp_platform_exec.rb
https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/c16fab08-6b2c-433a-9105-fc15f5c52575?source=cve
