CVE-2025-0958 Overview
CVE-2025-0958 affects the Ultimate WordPress Auction Plugin in all versions up to and including 4.2.9. The plugin exposes auction-handling functionality without adequate capability checks. Authenticated users holding Contributor-level access or higher can delete arbitrary auctions, posts, and pages, and can invoke additional auction-related actions they should not control. The issue is categorized under CWE-20: Improper Input Validation and reflects broken access control on AJAX endpoints. The vendor auctionplugin addressed the flaw in a patched release referenced in the plugin trac changeset.
Critical Impact
Contributor-level users can delete arbitrary auctions, posts, and pages on affected WordPress sites, causing content integrity loss.
Affected Products
- Auctionplugin Ultimate Auction plugin for WordPress, all versions through 4.2.9
- WordPress sites permitting Contributor-level registration or self-registration
- Multisite deployments running the vulnerable plugin on any subsite
Discovery Timeline
- 2025-03-04 - CVE-2025-0958 published to NVD
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2025-0958
Vulnerability Analysis
The Ultimate WordPress Auction Plugin registers several AJAX actions that operate on auction data and related WordPress objects. According to the Wordfence Vulnerability Analysis, the affected handlers fail to verify that the requesting user owns the target object or holds the appropriate WordPress capability. Any authenticated user at Contributor level or above can therefore invoke deletion routines against arbitrary post, page, or auction identifiers. The plugin's trust boundary assumes that authentication implies authorization for these endpoints, which is not correct in the WordPress role model.
Root Cause
The root cause is missing authorization enforcement inside auction AJAX handlers in ultimate-auction.php and ajax-actions/send-private-msg.php. The referenced code paths at lines 219 and 274 of ultimate-auction.php accept a caller-supplied object identifier and act on it after only a nonce or authentication check. There is no current_user_can() gate tied to the object being modified, and there is no ownership comparison between the requesting user and the auction author.
Attack Vector
Exploitation requires an authenticated session at Contributor level or higher. An attacker submits a crafted request to the vulnerable AJAX action supplying the numeric identifier of a target auction, post, or page. The plugin executes the deletion or auction-handling logic on behalf of the attacker without validating ownership or role. See the WordPress Plugin Code Review and WordPress Ultimate Auction Code for the unpatched handler behavior.
No public proof-of-concept is available. No verified code examples exist for this CVE, so exploitation is described in prose only.
Detection Methods for CVE-2025-0958
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexplained deletion of WordPress post, page, or auction entries authored by administrators or other users
- AJAX POST requests to admin-ajax.php referencing auction actions from Contributor-level accounts
- Sudden bursts of wp_trash_post or delete events in the WordPress activity log tied to a single low-privilege user
Detection Strategies
- Review web server access logs for POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php calls carrying auction-related action parameters from non-admin sessions
- Enable WordPress audit logging and alert on post or page deletions initiated by users below Editor role
- Correlate plugin version <= 4.2.9 inventory data with authenticated deletion events across the site fleet
Monitoring Recommendations
- Track newly created Contributor and Author accounts, especially on sites permitting open registration
- Baseline daily counts of auction, post, and page deletions, and alert on statistical spikes
- Forward WordPress and PHP application logs to a centralized analytics platform for cross-site correlation
How to Mitigate CVE-2025-0958
Immediate Actions Required
- Update the Ultimate WordPress Auction Plugin to the version published in the WordPress Ultimate Auction Changeset
- Audit all Contributor, Author, and Editor accounts and remove unused or unknown identities
- Restore any deleted auctions, posts, or pages from backup if suspicious deletions are found
Patch Information
The vendor released a fix referenced in trac changeset 3242416 for ultimate-auction.php. Site operators should upgrade to any plugin release built from this changeset or later. Review the WordPress Ultimate Auction Changeset to confirm the deployed version contains the added capability and ownership checks.
Workarounds
- Temporarily deactivate the Ultimate WordPress Auction Plugin until the patched build is applied
- Restrict site registration and downgrade untrusted Contributor accounts to Subscriber role
- Place admin-ajax.php behind a web application firewall rule that blocks auction actions from non-administrator sessions
# Configuration example: WP-CLI update and role hardening
wp plugin update ultimate-auction
wp plugin get ultimate-auction --field=version
wp user list --role=contributor --format=table
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
