Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
A logged-in WordPress user with very low privileges could turn on certain already-installed plugins through Royal Elementor Addons. This does not by itself install new software or give full control, but it can change site behavior and enable functionality administrators did not intend to expose.
Executive priority
Treat as a moderate WordPress hygiene issue. Prioritize internet-facing sites with subscriber accounts or customer portals, but do not rank it like a remote code execution issue based on the provided evidence.
Technical view
Royal Elementor Addons up to and including 1.3.59 lacks sufficient access control on the wpr_activate_required_plugins AJAX action. Any authenticated user, including a subscriber, can activate contact-form-7, media-library-assistant, or woocommerce if those plugins already exist on the site.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to WordPress sites running Royal Elementor Addons version 1.3.59 or earlier, with untrusted authenticated users and one of the named plugins already installed but inactive.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not cite active exploitation, and the CVE is not marked in KEV. Abuse requires an authenticated account and only activates specific installed plugins, so impact is integrity-focused rather than full compromise.
Researcher notes
Key conditions are authenticated access, affected Royal Elementor Addons version, and target plugins already present. The issue maps to CWE-285 and CVSS 4.3 with low integrity impact. Evidence does not support broader plugin activation or unauthenticated abuse.
Mitigation direction
- Update Royal Elementor Addons beyond the affected version per vendor guidance.
- Review whether public user registration or subscriber access is necessary.
- Remove unused installed plugins that should never be activated.
- Monitor vendor and Wordfence guidance for any additional remediation details.
Validation and detection
- Inventory WordPress sites using Royal Elementor Addons.
- Check whether any site runs version 1.3.59 or earlier.
- Confirm whether contact-form-7, media-library-assistant, or woocommerce are installed but inactive.
- Review audit logs for unexpected activation of those plugins.
- Verify low-privilege users cannot activate required plugins after updating.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-285: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2022-4701 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 4.3 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N2.81.4Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
4.3MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/55f7e39b-e7a5-462b-b1e4-c3d92038f17e?source=cveCVE reference
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/royal-elementor-addons/trunk/admin/templates-kit.php?rev=2833046CVE reference
- https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2023/01/eleven-vulnerabilities-patched-in-royal-elementor-addons/CVE reference
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/55f7e39b-e7a5-462b-b1e4-c3d92038f17eCVE reference · x_transferred
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Improper Authorization
Improper Authorization represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.