CVE-2025-0515 Overview
CVE-2025-0515 affects The Buzz Club – Night Club, DJ and Music Festival Event WordPress Theme in all versions up to and including 2.0.4. The vulnerability stems from a missing capability check on the cmsmasters_hide_admin_notice function. Authenticated attackers with Subscriber-level access or higher can modify arbitrary WordPress option values by setting them to hide. Attackers can leverage this to trigger site errors that deny service to legitimate users or enable dangerous settings such as open user registration. The issue is categorized under CWE-862: Missing Authorization.
Critical Impact
Any authenticated subscriber can modify site option values, breaking site functionality and enabling unauthorized configuration changes such as enabling public registration.
Affected Products
- The Buzz Club – Night Club, DJ and Music Festival Event WordPress Theme, versions ≤ 2.0.4
- WordPress installations using the vulnerable theme with open user registration
- Sites permitting Subscriber-level or higher accounts
Discovery Timeline
- 2025-01-18 - CVE-2025-0515 published to NVD
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2025-0515
Vulnerability Analysis
The vulnerability resides in the cmsmasters_hide_admin_notice function shipped with The Buzz Club theme. WordPress AJAX endpoints registered with wp_ajax_ hooks are accessible to any authenticated user unless the handler explicitly enforces a capability check. The affected function omits both a current_user_can() check and a nonce validation, allowing any logged-in user to invoke it.
When invoked, the handler writes user-supplied values into WordPress option storage via update_option(). Because the target option name is controlled by the request, an attacker can overwrite unrelated site options with the string hide. Setting critical configuration options to arbitrary values corrupts site behavior, produces fatal errors, or toggles boolean-adjacent settings to truthy states.
Root Cause
The root cause is a missing authorization check [CWE-862] on a privileged AJAX action. The handler trusts the authenticated session without validating that the caller holds an administrative capability such as manage_options. This is a common WordPress theme and plugin defect pattern.
Attack Vector
Exploitation requires a valid authenticated session at Subscriber level or above. The attacker sends a crafted POST request to admin-ajax.php targeting the cmsmasters_hide_admin_notice action with a controlled option name. No user interaction from an administrator is required. See the Wordfence Vulnerability Report for additional technical detail.
Detection Methods for CVE-2025-0515
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php containing action=cmsmasters_hide_admin_notice from low-privilege user sessions
- WordPress options unexpectedly holding the literal string value hide
- Site-wide PHP errors or white-screen conditions following subscriber logins
- Registration setting users_can_register flipped to enabled without administrator action
Detection Strategies
- Inspect web server access logs for admin-ajax.php requests referencing cmsmasters_hide_admin_notice originating from non-admin user IDs
- Audit the WordPress wp_options table for anomalous values, comparing against a known-good baseline
- Monitor authentication logs for newly created Subscriber accounts followed by AJAX activity within the same session
Monitoring Recommendations
- Enable WordPress audit logging to capture option changes and identify the acting user
- Alert on any modification to security-relevant options such as users_can_register, default_role, siteurl, and home
- Correlate low-privilege session activity with administrative-scoped AJAX actions
How to Mitigate CVE-2025-0515
Immediate Actions Required
- Disable or replace The Buzz Club theme until a patched release is available from the vendor on ThemeForest
- Disable open user registration by setting Anyone can register to off in WordPress General Settings
- Audit existing Subscriber-level accounts and remove any that are unrecognized
- Restore option values from a trusted backup if tampering is confirmed
Patch Information
At the time of publication, the NVD entry does not reference a fixed version. Monitor the Wordfence Vulnerability Report and the vendor's ThemeForest page for a patched release, and update to a version later than 2.0.4 once available.
Workarounds
- Block requests to admin-ajax.php where action=cmsmasters_hide_admin_notice at the web application firewall or reverse proxy
- Restrict Subscriber-level self-registration and require administrator-approved account creation
- Remove or comment out the vulnerable AJAX action registration in the theme's PHP source until a vendor patch is applied
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
