CVE-2025-1262: Advanced Google reCaptcha Auth Bypass Flaw

CVE-2025-1262 Overview

CVE-2025-1262 affects the Advanced Google reCaptcha plugin for WordPress in all versions up to and including 1.27. The vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to bypass the plugin's Built-in Math Captcha Verification. The flaw resides in the plugin's failure to properly validate the math CAPTCHA response before permitting form submission. Sites relying on this plugin as a defense against automated form abuse lose that protection when the flaw is exploited. The vendor, WebFactory Ltd, addressed the issue in a subsequent plugin release tracked in the WordPress plugin repository.

Critical Impact
Unauthenticated attackers can automate form submissions, credential attempts, and spam against WordPress sites that rely on the plugin's built-in math CAPTCHA for bot protection.

Affected Products

WebFactory Ltd Advanced Google reCaptcha plugin for WordPress
Versions up to and including 1.27
WordPress sites using the plugin's built-in Math Captcha Verification

Discovery Timeline

2025-02-25 - CVE-2025-1262 published to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD)
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-1262

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a CAPTCHA bypass classified under [CWE-804] (Guessable CAPTCHA). The plugin's Built-in Math Captcha Verification does not enforce sufficient server-side validation of the challenge response. An unauthenticated attacker submits crafted requests that satisfy the plugin's weak check and pass verification without solving the intended math challenge. The impact is limited to integrity of the CAPTCHA control itself. Confidentiality and availability are not directly affected. However, bypassing CAPTCHA enables downstream abuse such as credential stuffing, comment spam, contact form abuse, and brute-force attempts against login endpoints protected by the plugin.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper implementation of the math CAPTCHA verification routine. The plugin either accepts predictable challenge values, trusts client-supplied validation state, or fails to invalidate tokens after use. This class of weakness maps to [CWE-804], where the CAPTCHA can be programmatically satisfied without human interaction. The fix landed in changeset 3244677 in the WordPress plugin repository.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires only network access to a WordPress site running the vulnerable plugin. No authentication or user interaction is required. An attacker sends automated HTTP POST requests to any form protected by the built-in math CAPTCHA, supplies a bypass value or reuses a predictable response, and the request is processed as if the CAPTCHA were solved.

No public proof-of-concept exploit code is available at the time of publication. Technical details are described in the Wordfence Vulnerability Report.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-1262

Indicators of Compromise

Elevated rate of successful form submissions from single source IPs against login, comment, or contact endpoints
HTTP POST requests missing expected user-interaction timing patterns yet passing CAPTCHA validation
Presence of the Advanced Google reCaptcha plugin at version 1.27 or earlier in wp-content/plugins/advanced-google-recaptcha/

Detection Strategies

Inventory WordPress installations for the advanced-google-recaptcha plugin and compare installed versions against 1.27
Review web server access logs for repeated POST requests to wp-login.php, wp-comments-post.php, and contact form endpoints from the same source
Correlate CAPTCHA-protected form submissions with client fingerprinting or JavaScript execution signals to identify non-browser clients

Monitoring Recommendations

Alert on spikes in comment, registration, or login submissions coinciding with plugin versions at or below 1.27
Monitor WordPress plugin update telemetry to confirm remediation across managed sites
Track authentication failure rates and account lockouts as secondary indicators of CAPTCHA bypass abuse

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-1262

Immediate Actions Required

Update the Advanced Google reCaptcha plugin to a version later than 1.27 that includes the fix from changeset 3244677
Audit all WordPress sites managed by your organization for the vulnerable plugin version
Enable rate limiting and IP-based throttling on login, registration, and comment endpoints

Patch Information

WebFactory Ltd released a fix documented in the WordPress Plugin Change Log. Site administrators should update through the WordPress admin plugin manager or by deploying the latest package from the plugin repository. Additional technical context is available in the Wordfence Vulnerability Report.

Workarounds

Switch protected forms from the Built-in Math Captcha to the plugin's Google reCAPTCHA v2 or v3 integration until patched
Deploy a web application firewall (WAF) rule to challenge or block automated POST requests to CAPTCHA-protected endpoints
Temporarily disable public registration and anonymous commenting on sites where the plugin cannot be updated immediately

bash

# Verify installed plugin version via WP-CLI
wp plugin get advanced-google-recaptcha --field=version

# Update the plugin to the latest patched release
wp plugin update advanced-google-recaptcha

# Confirm remediation
wp plugin list | grep advanced-google-recaptcha