CVE-2025-14609: Wise Analytics Auth Bypass Vulnerability

CVE-2025-14609 Overview

The Wise Analytics plugin for WordPress contains a Missing Authorization vulnerability affecting all versions up to and including 1.1.9. This security flaw exists due to missing capability checks on the REST API endpoint /wise-analytics/v1/report, allowing unauthenticated attackers to access sensitive analytics data without proper authorization.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can access sensitive analytics data including administrator usernames, login timestamps, visitor tracking information, and business intelligence data via the 'name' parameter.

Affected Products

• Wise Analytics plugin for WordPress versions up to and including 1.1.9
• WordPress installations running vulnerable Wise Analytics plugin versions

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-01-24 - CVE-2025-14609 published to NVD
• 2026-01-26 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-14609

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability falls under CWE-862 (Missing Authorization), a common weakness in web application security where proper access control mechanisms are not implemented. The Wise Analytics plugin exposes a REST API endpoint at /wise-analytics/v1/report that lacks appropriate capability checks to verify whether the requesting user has authorization to access the data.

The flaw allows unauthenticated users to query the REST API and retrieve sensitive information that should only be accessible to authenticated administrators. The exposed data includes administrator usernames, login timestamps, visitor tracking details, and business intelligence analytics—information that could be leveraged for further attacks such as targeted credential attacks, social engineering, or competitive intelligence gathering.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability lies in the ReportsEndpoint.php file, specifically at line 43 in the affected versions. The REST API endpoint handler fails to implement WordPress capability checks (such as current_user_can()) before processing and returning report data. Without these authorization controls, the endpoint responds to any request regardless of the authentication status of the requester.

This represents a fundamental access control oversight where the developers did not implement the WordPress permission system to restrict access to sensitive analytics endpoints.

Attack Vector

The vulnerability is exploitable over the network without requiring any authentication or user interaction. An attacker can craft HTTP requests directly to the exposed REST API endpoint /wise-analytics/v1/report with a crafted name parameter to extract sensitive analytics data.

The attack can be executed remotely by sending unauthenticated requests to the vulnerable endpoint. The attacker simply needs to identify a WordPress site running the vulnerable plugin version and make direct API calls to exfiltrate the available analytics data. Since the endpoint is publicly accessible without authentication, no prior access or privileges are required to exploit this vulnerability.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-14609

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual or excessive requests to the /wp-json/wise-analytics/v1/report endpoint from unauthenticated sources
• Access logs showing external IP addresses querying the Wise Analytics REST API endpoints
• Unexpected data retrieval patterns targeting analytics report endpoints
• HTTP requests to the vulnerable endpoint containing various name parameter values

Detection Strategies

• Monitor web server access logs for requests to /wp-json/wise-analytics/v1/report from unauthenticated sessions
• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and alert on suspicious REST API access patterns
• Review WordPress REST API access patterns for anomalous behavior targeting the wise-analytics namespace
• Deploy endpoint detection solutions to identify reconnaissance activity against WordPress installations

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging for WordPress REST API requests, particularly for the wise-analytics namespace
• Configure alerts for high-volume requests to analytics endpoints from single IP addresses
• Implement rate limiting on WordPress REST API endpoints to mitigate automated data harvesting
• Regularly audit WordPress plugin configurations and access control settings

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-14609

Immediate Actions Required

• Update the Wise Analytics plugin to a version newer than 1.1.9 when a patched version becomes available
• Temporarily disable the Wise Analytics plugin if it is not critical to operations until a patch is available
• Implement Web Application Firewall rules to block unauthenticated access to the /wp-json/wise-analytics/v1/report endpoint
• Review server logs for evidence of exploitation attempts and potential data exposure

Patch Information

Organizations using the Wise Analytics plugin should monitor the WordPress Plugin Repository and the Wordfence Vulnerability Report for updates regarding a security patch. The vulnerable code is located in src/Endpoints/ReportsEndpoint.php at line 43 in versions up to 1.1.9.

Workarounds

• Implement .htaccess or server configuration rules to restrict access to the Wise Analytics REST API endpoints
• Use a security plugin such as Wordfence to add authorization requirements to the vulnerable endpoint
• Configure WordPress REST API access restrictions to require authentication for all wise-analytics namespace endpoints
• Consider implementing IP-based access controls to limit REST API access to trusted networks only

# Apache .htaccess configuration to restrict access to Wise Analytics API
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/wp-json/wise-analytics/v1/report [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} ^$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [F,L]
</IfModule>