WordPress’s roles and capabilities system is ingeniously simple, providing website administrators with the power to control user access and permissions. However, it is not uncommon for plugin and theme developers to misunderstand this system, leading them to make decisions that could pose security risks for larger organizations. In this article, we’ll explore recycling existing WordPress core capabilities may cause big troubles, and how AAM can help to mitigate them.
Common pitfall
From time to time, plugin and theme developers may take shortcuts when defining access controls for their custom features. For instance, they might choose to use the edit_posts capability to grant access to functionality that defines SEO tags for posts or the edit_pages capability to manage online orders. While this may seem convenient, it can lead to significant issues, especially in large organizations.
Imagine a scenario where a large-scale website is managed by dedicated editorial and SEO teams, each with a clear set of responsibilities. The editorial team is given the edit_posts capability to manage their posts’ content, which is entirely reasonable. However, this capability also grants them the ability to modify SEO-related metadata. This overlap in capabilities may result in human errors and potentially lead to lost revenue, as SEO-related settings should not be tampered with by the editorial team.
Similarly, a freelancer who is allowed to manage pages may suddenly gain access to view all online orders and sensitive customer information. Such situations are far from ideal, as they compromise security and confidentiality.
Research Results
We conducted research by analyzing top 1000 most popular WordPress plugins to identify list of recycled WordPress core capabilities. The data we’ve collected gives valuable insight into which core capabilities are frequently utilized to grant access to various features. However, the high frequency of certain capabilities raises potential security concerns, especially when these capabilities are reused or “recycled” across different plugins.
Here is the complete list of identified capabilities with the number of WordPress plugins that use them:
| Capability | # of plugins |
|---|---|
| manage_options | 768 |
| author | 469 |
| administrator | 375 |
| editor | 311 |
| edit_posts | 308 |
| activate_plugins | 279 |
| install_plugins | 277 |
| update_plugins | 244 |
| read | 238 |
| import | 209 |
| export | 173 |
| publish_posts | 121 |
| edit_others_posts | 121 |
| edit_theme_options | 119 |
| subscriber | 111 |
| update_themes | 109 |
| unfiltered_html | 108 |
| upload_files | 105 |
| edit_pages | 95 |
| switch_themes | 94 |
| install_themes | 92 |
| delete_posts | 83 |
| contributor | 82 |
| read_private_posts | 71 |
| delete_others_posts | 61 |
| update_core | 56 |
| edit_published_posts | 54 |
| edit_users | 50 |
| delete_published_posts | 46 |
| publish_pages | 45 |
| moderate_comments | 44 |
| manage_categories | 37 |
| delete_users | 37 |
| create_users | 36 |
| delete_private_posts | 35 |
| list_users | 35 |
| edit_private_posts | 34 |
| edit_plugins | 34 |
| delete_plugins | 33 |
| edit_others_pages | 31 |
| unfiltered_upload | 30 |
| edit_themes | 29 |
| delete_pages | 24 |
| promote_users | 24 |
| edit_files | 23 |
| manage_links | 21 |
| edit_published_pages | 21 |
| delete_others_pages | 21 |
| edit_private_pages | 20 |
| read_private_pages | 20 |
| delete_themes | 20 |
| delete_published_pages | 19 |
| remove_users | 18 |
| delete_private_pages | 18 |
| edit_dashboard | 18 |
| level_1 | 16 |
| level_3 | 13 |
| level_2 | 13 |
| level_10 | 13 |
| level_7 | 12 |
| level_4 | 12 |
| level_0 | 12 |
| level_9 | 11 |
| level_8 | 11 |
| level_6 | 11 |
| level_5 | 11 |
Here are a few key takeaways on this:
Security Risks
- Overlapping Permissions: Reusing capabilities like
manage_options,edit_posts,readorimportacross various plugins could grant users access to unintended features. This is especially risky if the plugin doesn’t thoroughly verify user roles or permissions, leading to privilege escalation. - Difficulty in Managing Permissions: When plugins use general or admin-level capabilities without specificity, managing permissions becomes harder. Administrators might struggle to set granular permissions or, worse, might not even realize which features certain user roles can access.
Impact on Site Integrity
- Site Stability: Granting broad capabilities like
unfiltered_htmlorinstall_pluginscan destabilize a site if users inadvertently make significant changes or damage entire website. - Increased Attack Surface: Commonly used capabilities might be targeted in attacks because these permissions are granted widely. Attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in plugins if they gain access to roles with elevated capabilities.
Ultimately, while core capabilities make it easier for developers to integrate with WordPress’s existing permissions system, they require careful handling. Taking a proactive approach to understanding and managing plugin capabilities can go a long way in maintaining a secure WordPress site.
Mitigating the Risks
To address the challenges posed by these scenarios and maintain a robust security posture, Advanced Access Manager (AAM) offers a comprehensive set of tools and features. AAM is a powerful WordPress plugin designed to enhance user access control and permissions management.
These are just a few things that you can do to significantly reduce security risks:
- Audit Role Capabilities Regularly: Tools like the Advanced Access Manager plugin help to audit and control user roles and capabilities. Regular audits can help identify and remove excessive permissions.
- Least Privilege Principle: Assign users the minimum level of access necessary for their roles. Avoid granting general capabilities to custom roles unless absolutely necessary.
- Use Backend Restricted Mode. To ensure that your users have access only to backend pages that were explicitly allowed, you can leverage the backend menu service and enable the “Restricted Mode”.
- Plugin Choice and Reviews: Choose plugins that prioritize security and have active development teams. Look at plugin updates, reviews, and documentation to assess the developer’s attention to permissions and security.
Conclusion
While WordPress’s roles and capabilities system is simple and effective, it can be misunderstood by developers, leading to potential security vulnerabilities in larger organizations. Recycling core capabilities to grant access to custom functionalities may seem like a quick solution, but it can have dire consequences.
Advanced Access Manager offers a robust and user-friendly solutions for managing user roles and capabilities effectively. With AAM, website administrators can maintain granular control over user access, create custom capabilities, protect sensitive content, and more.
By using Advanced Access Manager, organizations can ensure the security, privacy, and integrity of their WordPress-powered websites, even in complex and dynamic environments.