CVE-2025-22298: Hive Support Authorization Bypass Vulnerability

CVE-2025-22298 Overview

CVE-2025-22298 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability [CWE-862] affecting the Hive Support WordPress plugin. The flaw stems from incorrectly configured access control security levels in versions up to and including 1.1.6. Authenticated users with low privileges can invoke functionality that should be restricted, resulting in unauthorized modifications to plugin data. The issue was published to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) on January 7, 2025 and disclosed through Patchstack.

Critical Impact
Authenticated attackers with minimal privileges can bypass access control checks in the Hive Support plugin and perform actions outside their authorization scope, impacting the integrity of plugin-managed data.

Affected Products

Hive Support WordPress plugin (hive-support) versions n/a through 1.1.6
WordPress sites running the vulnerable plugin
Any environment permitting low-privilege authenticated user registration on affected installations

Discovery Timeline

2025-01-07 - CVE-2025-22298 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-22298

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a Broken Access Control issue classified under CWE-862: Missing Authorization. The Hive Support plugin exposes one or more actions that fail to verify whether the calling user holds the required capability or role. As a result, an authenticated user with any account level can trigger functionality intended for higher-privileged roles such as administrators or support agents.

Exploitation requires network access to the WordPress site and a valid authenticated session with low privileges. No user interaction is needed beyond issuing the crafted request. The impact is limited to integrity: an attacker can alter plugin-controlled records, settings, or ticket data without authorization. Confidentiality and availability are not directly affected according to the CVSS vector.

Root Cause

The underlying defect is a missing capability check on one or more AJAX handlers, REST endpoints, or admin-post actions registered by the plugin. WordPress plugins are expected to call current_user_can() with an appropriate capability before executing privileged operations. The affected handlers in Hive Support up to 1.1.6 either omit this check entirely or rely on nonces alone, which authenticate request origin but do not enforce authorization.

Attack Vector

An attacker first obtains a low-privilege account on the target WordPress site, for example a Subscriber or Customer role. The attacker then sends an HTTP request directly to the vulnerable plugin endpoint, supplying valid session cookies and any required nonce. Because the endpoint does not validate the user's role, the request is processed as if issued by an authorized user. See the Patchstack advisory for endpoint-specific details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-22298

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected modifications to Hive Support tickets, settings, or configuration entries in the WordPress database
Access log entries showing low-privilege user accounts issuing POST requests to admin-ajax.php or REST endpoints under the hive-support namespace
New or altered plugin data records with author IDs that do not correspond to support staff accounts

Detection Strategies

Review WordPress access logs for wp-admin/admin-ajax.php requests referencing Hive Support actions from accounts without the Administrator or support role
Compare Hive Support database tables against known-good snapshots to identify unauthorized changes
Enable WordPress audit logging plugins to record capability checks and privileged plugin actions

Monitoring Recommendations

Alert on HTTP 200 responses to Hive Support endpoints originating from Subscriber-level session cookies
Monitor for spikes in AJAX or REST traffic to the hive-support plugin path from non-privileged user IDs
Track new user registrations followed shortly by requests to plugin administrative endpoints

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-22298

Immediate Actions Required

Update the Hive Support plugin to a version above 1.1.6 as soon as the vendor releases a patched build
Audit WordPress user accounts and remove or downgrade any accounts that should not have access to plugin functionality
Disable open user registration temporarily if the site does not require self-service signup

Patch Information

At the time of publication, refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for the latest fixed version and remediation guidance. Site administrators should subscribe to the Hive Support changelog and apply upgrades through the standard WordPress plugin update workflow.

Workarounds

Deactivate the Hive Support plugin until an official patched release is installed
Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule that blocks requests to Hive Support AJAX and REST endpoints from users lacking a support or administrator role
Restrict access to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php actions containing hive_support or the plugin's action prefix via server-level rules

bash

# Example nginx rule to block hive-support AJAX actions from unauthenticated or low-privilege sessions
location = /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php {
    if ($arg_action ~* "hive[_-]support") {
        # Require an administrator cookie prefix; adjust to your session model
        if ($http_cookie !~ "wordpress_logged_in_[a-f0-9]+=admin") {
            return 403;
        }
    }
}