CVE-2025-11457: EasyCommerce Privilege Escalation Flaw

CVE-2025-11457 Overview

CVE-2025-11457 is a critical privilege escalation vulnerability affecting the EasyCommerce – AI-Powered, Fast & Beautiful WordPress Ecommerce Plugin for WordPress. The vulnerability exists in versions 0.9.0-beta2 through 1.5.0 and allows unauthenticated attackers to gain administrator-level access to vulnerable WordPress sites through improper role restriction in the REST API endpoint.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability to gain full administrator access to WordPress sites running vulnerable versions of EasyCommerce, potentially leading to complete site takeover, data theft, and malicious content injection.

Affected Products

• EasyCommerce WordPress Plugin versions 0.9.0-beta2 to 1.5.0
• WordPress sites with the vulnerable EasyCommerce plugin installed and active

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-11-11 - CVE-2025-11457 published to NVD
• 2025-11-12 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-11457

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269). The core issue lies in the /easycommerce/v1/orders REST API endpoint, which fails to properly validate and restrict user role selection during the registration process. This design flaw enables unauthenticated users to specify arbitrary roles, including administrative privileges, when creating new accounts through the vulnerable endpoint.

The vulnerability is particularly severe because it requires no prior authentication, making it accessible to any remote attacker who can reach the WordPress site over the network. The attack complexity is low, requiring no user interaction to exploit successfully. Successful exploitation results in complete compromise of the WordPress installation's confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is the lack of proper access control and input validation in the EasyCommerce plugin's REST API registration functionality. The /easycommerce/v1/orders endpoint does not implement adequate authorization checks to prevent unauthenticated users from assigning themselves elevated roles. This represents a broken access control vulnerability where the application trusts user-supplied role parameters without server-side validation against allowed values for unauthenticated requests.

Attack Vector

The attack is executed remotely over the network by sending crafted HTTP requests to the vulnerable REST API endpoint. An attacker can construct a malicious request to the /easycommerce/v1/orders endpoint that includes role parameters specifying administrator-level privileges.

The exploitation process involves:

1. Identifying a WordPress site running a vulnerable version of EasyCommerce (0.9.0-beta2 to 1.5.0)
2. Crafting a POST request to the /wp-json/easycommerce/v1/orders endpoint
3. Including parameters that specify an administrator role during registration
4. Submitting the request to create an account with elevated privileges
5. Using the newly created administrator account to take control of the WordPress site

For detailed technical information, see the Wordfence Vulnerability Report.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-11457

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected administrator or high-privilege user accounts appearing in the WordPress user database
• Unusual POST requests to /wp-json/easycommerce/v1/orders from unfamiliar IP addresses
• New user accounts created with administrator roles that were not authorized by site administrators
• Suspicious activity in WordPress access logs referencing the EasyCommerce REST API endpoints

Detection Strategies

• Monitor WordPress access logs for unusual POST requests targeting /wp-json/easycommerce/v1/orders
• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block requests containing role manipulation parameters to the vulnerable endpoint
• Regularly audit WordPress user accounts for unauthorized administrator-level users
• Deploy endpoint detection solutions that can identify unauthorized privilege changes on WordPress installations

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging for all WordPress REST API requests
• Set up alerts for new user registrations with administrator or elevated privileges
• Monitor for changes to the wp_users and wp_usermeta database tables
• Implement real-time log analysis to detect exploitation attempts against the EasyCommerce plugin

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-11457

Immediate Actions Required

• Update the EasyCommerce plugin to a version newer than 1.5.0 that addresses this vulnerability
• If an update is not immediately available, deactivate the EasyCommerce plugin until a patch is released
• Audit all existing WordPress user accounts and remove any unauthorized administrator accounts
• Review access logs for evidence of prior exploitation attempts

Patch Information

Administrators should update the EasyCommerce plugin to the latest available version that addresses this privilege escalation vulnerability. Check the WordPress Plugin Directory for the most recent version and security updates. If a patched version is not yet available, consider temporarily disabling the plugin to protect your site.

Workarounds

• Temporarily deactivate the EasyCommerce plugin until an official patch is available
• Implement WAF rules to block unauthorized access to the /wp-json/easycommerce/v1/orders endpoint
• Restrict access to the WordPress REST API using server-level access controls or security plugins
• Consider IP-based access restrictions for administrative functions if feasible for your environment

# Example: Block access to vulnerable endpoint via .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/wp-json/easycommerce/v1/orders [NC]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} POST
    RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>