CVE-2025-12356: Tickera WordPress Auth Bypass Vulnerability

CVE-2025-12356 Overview

The Tickera – Sell Tickets & Manage Events plugin for WordPress contains a broken access control vulnerability due to a missing capability check on the wp_ajax_change_ticket_status AJAX endpoint. This authorization bypass affects all versions up to and including 3.5.6.4, allowing authenticated attackers with minimal privileges (Subscriber-level access) to modify post and event statuses without proper authorization.

Critical Impact

Authenticated attackers with low-privilege Subscriber accounts can manipulate ticket and event statuses, potentially disrupting event management operations and ticket sales workflows.

Affected Products

• Tickera – Sell Tickets & Manage Events plugin for WordPress versions up to and including 3.5.6.4

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-02-18 - CVE CVE-2025-12356 published to NVD
• 2026-02-18 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-12356

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as CWE-862 (Missing Authorization), representing a fundamental access control flaw in the Tickera plugin's AJAX handler implementation. The vulnerable code resides in the wp_ajax_change_ticket_status endpoint, which processes ticket status modification requests without verifying that the requesting user has appropriate permissions to perform such actions.

In WordPress plugin development, AJAX endpoints that modify data should implement capability checks using functions like current_user_can() to verify the user has adequate privileges before processing the request. The Tickera plugin fails to implement this critical security control, allowing any authenticated user—including those with the minimal Subscriber role—to invoke the endpoint and change ticket statuses.

The impact of this vulnerability centers on data integrity. While it does not enable data exfiltration or remote code execution, unauthorized status changes to tickets and events can disrupt business operations, affect ticket sales, and undermine the reliability of the event management system.

Root Cause

The root cause is a missing authorization check in the wp_ajax_change_ticket_status AJAX action handler located in tickera.php at line 3903. The handler processes status change requests directly without first verifying that the authenticated user has the necessary capabilities (such as edit_posts or a custom Tickera capability) to modify ticket data. This is a common WordPress plugin security oversight where developers secure frontend access but neglect to implement backend capability checks on AJAX endpoints.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires authentication to the WordPress site with at least Subscriber-level access. An attacker would craft an AJAX request to the wp_ajax_change_ticket_status endpoint with appropriate parameters to change the status of tickets or events. Since WordPress authenticates the user via cookies but the endpoint lacks authorization checks, the request would be processed regardless of the user's actual role or capabilities.

The attack is network-based, requires low complexity to execute, and needs no user interaction beyond the attacker being logged in. The vulnerability affects data integrity but does not impact confidentiality or availability directly.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-12356

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual AJAX requests to admin-ajax.php with action=change_ticket_status from users with Subscriber or low-privilege roles
• Unexpected ticket or event status changes in Tickera logs without corresponding administrator activity
• Multiple status modification requests originating from accounts that should not have event management permissions

Detection Strategies

• Monitor WordPress audit logs for AJAX calls to change_ticket_status action from non-administrator accounts
• Implement application-level logging for all ticket status changes with user role attribution
• Configure web application firewall (WAF) rules to flag suspicious patterns of AJAX endpoint access from low-privilege sessions

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable verbose logging on the WordPress site to capture AJAX endpoint activity
• Review user role assignments regularly to identify accounts that may be compromised or misused
• Implement real-time alerting for ticket status modifications by non-administrative users

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-12356

Immediate Actions Required

• Update the Tickera plugin to version 3.5.6.5 or later immediately
• Audit ticket and event statuses for any unauthorized modifications
• Review user accounts with Subscriber or higher access for signs of compromise
• Consider temporarily restricting AJAX endpoint access via server configuration until patching is complete

Patch Information

The vulnerability has been addressed in the plugin update released via the WordPress plugin repository. The fix implements proper capability checks on the wp_ajax_change_ticket_status endpoint. Technical details of the patch can be reviewed in the WordPress Changeset 3422813. Additional vulnerability information is available in the Wordfence Vulnerability Report.

Workarounds

• Restrict AJAX endpoint access at the web server level by blocking requests to admin-ajax.php with the action=change_ticket_status parameter from non-administrator IP ranges
• Implement a WordPress code snippet or mu-plugin to add capability checks to the vulnerable endpoint as a temporary measure
• Limit user registration and Subscriber account creation until the patch is applied

# Temporary .htaccess rule to restrict AJAX endpoint access (Apache)
# Note: This is a workaround and may affect legitimate functionality
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php$
    RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} action=change_ticket_status [NC]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !wordpress_logged_in_.*admin
    RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>