Have worked with EE for so long and have no idea why this is happening.
The issue seems to revolve around everything that is uploaded via file manager and/or the File field type. If I visit a page as a super admin, the images and links display fine. If I log in as a Member level user, all the href’s and src’s are replaced with the page’s own URL.
Looking all over for some sort of setting and coming up empty handed.
EDIT: This seems to be an issue with 2.5.3. Site was upgraded to 2.5.4 and magically this resolved. (on 2.5.2 also not an issue)