# CVE-2021-21389: BuddyPress - Information Disclosure

> Live exploitation tracking for CVE-2021-21389 by the CrowdSec Live Exploit Tracker, built from real-world attack data crowdsourced from CrowdSec's global network.

Page: https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2021-21389

## Key facts

- **Exploitation phase:** Limited Exploitation. The vulnerability is known but shows very limited attacker interest or exploitation activity.
- **CVSS score:** 8.1
- **Public exploit available:** Yes
- **Affected products:** BuddyPress
- **Weaknesses:** CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization)
- **Tags:** wordpress

## Description

BuddyPress is an open source WordPress plugin to build a community site. In releases of BuddyPress from 5.0.0 before 7.2.1 it's possible for a non-privileged, regular user to obtain administrator rights by exploiting an issue in the REST API members endpoint. The vulnerability has been fixed in BuddyPress 7.2.1. Existing installations of the plugin should be updated to this version to mitigate the issue.

## CrowdSec analysis

[CVE-2021-21389](https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/vulnerability/CVE-2021-21389) is a vulnerability in the BuddyPress plugin for WordPress, where attackers can exploit the REST API members endpoint to elevate privileges from a regular user to administrator.

CrowdSec has been tracking this vulnerability and its exploits since 20th of May 2025.

Insights from the CrowdSec network reveal that the attackers trying to exploit CVE-2021-21389 are composed of a fairly even mix of opportunistic and targeted actors. Some attackers employ preliminary reconnaissance, while others use indiscriminate scanning.
Data from the CrowdSec community also indicates a gradual decrease in attacks targeting CVE-2021-21389. While still present in the wild, exploitation levels have dropped noticeably week-over-week. This may signal that the vulnerability is becoming less relevant or that defenses are improving fast enough for attackers to lose interest.

Observed attacks typically involve requests sent to URLs containing `/wp-json/buddypress/v1/signup`.

## Timeline

- 2021-03-26: CVE Published. CVE-2021-21389 is published to NVD.
- 2025-05-20: Rule Released. CrowdSec releases a rule to detect CVE-2021-21389 exploitation attempts against the CrowdSec Network.
- 2025-05-20: CrowdSec First Seen. CrowdSec observes in-the-wild exploitation of CVE-2021-21389 for the first time.

## References

- https://github.com/buddypress/BuddyPress/security/advisories/GHSA-m6j4-8r7p-wpp3
- https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2021/CVE-2021-21389.yaml

## Live exploitation data

The [Live Exploit Tracker page](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2021-21389) follows observed exploitation activity for CVE-2021-21389. [Request an API key](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/request-api-key) for full access to its exploitation timeline, attacking IP addresses and blocklists.