CVE-2025-23929: Email Capture Plugin Auth Bypass Flaw

CVE-2025-23929 Overview

CVE-2025-23929 is a missing authorization vulnerability in the wishfulthemes Email Capture & Lead Generation WordPress plugin. The flaw affects all versions up to and including 1.0.2. It stems from incorrectly configured access control on plugin functions, letting authenticated users with low privileges perform actions restricted to higher-privileged roles. The issue is classified under [CWE-862: Missing Authorization]. Patchstack published the advisory referenced by the National Vulnerability Database (NVD).

Critical Impact

Authenticated attackers with minimal privileges can exploit broken access control to affect plugin integrity through unauthorized actions on the affected WordPress site.

Affected Products

• wishfulthemes Email Capture & Lead Generation plugin for WordPress
• All versions from n/a through 1.0.2
• WordPress sites with the email-capture-lead-generation plugin installed and active

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-01-16 - CVE-2025-23929 published to NVD
• 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-23929

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a broken access control issue in the Email Capture & Lead Generation plugin. The plugin exposes functionality without verifying that the requesting user holds the correct capability or role. An authenticated user with low privileges can invoke actions the plugin should restrict to administrators. The attack requires network access and authenticated access at a low privilege level, with no user interaction. Impact is limited to integrity of plugin-controlled data, without direct effect on confidentiality or availability of the host system.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing authorization checks [CWE-862] on one or more plugin endpoints or actions. WordPress plugins typically enforce access through current_user_can() capability checks and nonce verification via check_admin_referer() or wp_verify_nonce(). When these checks are absent or misapplied, any authenticated user can reach handlers that were only intended for privileged roles. In this plugin, the access control layer fails to gate sensitive functionality behind an appropriate capability check.

Attack Vector

An attacker first obtains authenticated access to a target WordPress site, for example as a subscriber-level user on a site that permits open registration. The attacker then sends crafted HTTP requests to the vulnerable plugin endpoints exposed by admin-ajax.php, REST API routes, or admin action handlers. Because the plugin does not verify authorization, the server processes the request and performs the restricted action. See the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for advisory details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-23929

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected modifications to Email Capture & Lead Generation plugin settings or captured lead data
• Requests to plugin-specific admin-ajax.php actions or REST endpoints originating from low-privileged user sessions
• New or altered plugin configuration entries in the WordPress wp_options table

Detection Strategies

• Audit WordPress access logs for POST requests to plugin endpoints correlated with subscriber or contributor accounts
• Review the plugin source for handlers lacking current_user_can() or nonce verification
• Compare current plugin settings and lead data against known-good baselines to identify unauthorized changes

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable WordPress activity logging to capture user actions, role changes, and plugin option updates
• Forward web server and PHP application logs to a centralized analytics platform for correlation and alerting
• Alert on anomalous POST volume to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php from non-administrator accounts

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-23929

Immediate Actions Required

• Deactivate the Email Capture & Lead Generation plugin until a patched release is confirmed
• Restrict WordPress registration to reduce the pool of authenticated attackers
• Review user roles and revoke unnecessary accounts with dashboard access

Patch Information

At the time of NVD publication, no fixed version is listed for the Email Capture & Lead Generation plugin. Administrators should monitor the Patchstack Vulnerability Report and the WordPress plugin repository for an update beyond version 1.0.2 that introduces proper capability checks.

Workarounds

• Remove or disable the plugin on production sites until a fixed release is available
• Deploy a web application firewall rule to block unauthenticated or low-privilege requests to the plugin's action handlers
• Enforce least-privilege on WordPress user roles and disable self-registration where feasible

# Disable the vulnerable plugin using WP-CLI
wp plugin deactivate email-capture-lead-generation
wp plugin uninstall email-capture-lead-generation

# Disable open registration in WordPress
wp option update users_can_register 0