CVE-2025-1653: ulisting vulnerability

What is known

The Directory Listings WordPress plugin – uListing plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation in all versions up to, and including, 2.2.0. This is due to the stm_listing_profile_edit AJAX action not having enough restriction on the user meta that can be updated. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to elevate their privileges to that of an administrator.

Business impact

Successful exploitation of CVE-2025-1653, a high vulnerability (CVSS 8.8) affecting ulisting, may affect the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the vulnerable environment. The exact impact depends on the installed version, exposed interfaces and deployment configuration.

Recommended administrator action

Confirm whether ulisting is present and compare installed versions with the vendor advisory and NVD record. Apply the vendor patch or documented mitigation; until remediation is complete, reduce exposure of affected interfaces, review relevant logs and monitor for indicators of exploitation. DataHouse can support version verification, managed patching, network exposure reduction, log review and backup validation for dedicated, cloud and colocated environments.

Sources

• NVD
• Reference
• Reference