# CVE-2018-16613: Privilege escalation in n/a

> A registered user can escalate privileges to forum administrator in the wpForo Forum plugin for WordPress without user interaction.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 19 Jun 2019
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-v6cj-v6qg-rxfm

## What is CVE-2018-16613?

CVE-2018-16613 is a critical vulnerability in n/a, published on 19 Jun 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in the update function in the wpForo Forum plugin before 1.5.2 for WordPress. A registered forum is able to escalate privilege to the forum administrator without any form of user interaction.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-16613?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Gvectors Wpforo Forum.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-16613?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-16613 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-16613 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-16613 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2024-3200](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-3200/): wpForo Forum <= 2.3.3 - Authenticated (Contributor+) SQL Injection (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2022-40200](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-40200/): WordPress wpForo Forum plugin <= 2.0.9 - Auth. Arbitrary File Upload vulnerability (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2026-28562](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-28562/): wpForo Forum 2.4.14 SQL Injection via Topics ORDER BY Parameter (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2023-2249](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-2249/): Server-side request forgery in wpForo Forum (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2022-38144](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-38144/): WordPress wpForo Forum plugin <= 2.0.5 - Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-16613 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-16613 is a critical vulnerability in n/a, published on 19 Jun 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-16613 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-16613/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-16613/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-16613
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-16613
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-16613

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-16613/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.