CVE-2025-48165: 
WordPress vulnerability analysis and mitigation

A privilege escalation vulnerability was discovered in DELUCKS SEO WordPress plugin versions through 2.6.0. The vulnerability was reported on June 17, 2025, by security researcher Martino Spagnuolo (r3verii) and was assigned CVE-2025-48165. The issue was officially published on July 31, 2025, and involves incorrect privilege assignment that could allow unauthorized privilege escalation (Patchstack).

The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 (High) with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. The issue is classified as CWE-266 (Incorrect Privilege Assignment) and requires a minimum of Subscriber-level access to exploit. The vulnerability falls under the OWASP Top 10 category A5: Security Misconfiguration (Patchstack).

The vulnerability could allow malicious actors to escalate their low-privileged accounts to higher privilege levels. If successfully exploited, attackers could potentially gain full control of the affected website. The high CVSS score of 8.8 indicates that this vulnerability is considered highly dangerous and is expected to become mass exploited (Patchstack).

The vulnerability has been fixed in DELUCKS SEO version 2.6.1. Site administrators are strongly advised to update to version 2.6.1 or later immediately. For users of Patchstack security services, a virtual patch has been issued to mitigate this issue by blocking potential attacks until the update can be applied (Patchstack).