CVE-2025-39560: Live Forms Authorization Bypass Vulnerability

CVE-2025-39560 Overview

CVE-2025-39560 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability [CWE-862] in the Shahjada Live Forms WordPress plugin (liveforms). The flaw affects all versions up to and including 4.8.4. It stems from incorrectly configured access control security levels that permit authenticated users to invoke plugin functionality without appropriate capability checks. An attacker with low-level authenticated access can exploit this weakness over the network to affect integrity and availability of plugin-managed data.

Critical Impact
Authenticated attackers with low privileges can perform actions restricted to higher-privileged roles, resulting in limited integrity and availability impact on Live Forms plugin data.

Affected Products

Shahjada Live Forms WordPress plugin (liveforms)
All versions from n/a through <= 4.8.4
WordPress installations with the Live Forms plugin enabled

Discovery Timeline

2025-04-16 - CVE-2025-39560 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-39560

Vulnerability Analysis

The Live Forms plugin exposes functionality that fails to verify whether the requesting user holds the required capability or role. This results in a broken access control condition classified under CWE-862: Missing Authorization. Authenticated users with minimal privileges can trigger restricted operations that should be limited to administrators or form owners. The impact is limited to partial integrity and availability changes rather than full system compromise or data disclosure.

Root Cause

The root cause is the absence or misconfiguration of capability checks in plugin request handlers. WordPress plugins typically enforce authorization using current_user_can() checks or nonce verification tied to a capability. In Live Forms versions through 4.8.4, one or more endpoints omit these checks or apply an incorrect capability level, allowing subscribers or other low-privileged roles to execute privileged actions.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires network access to the target WordPress site and a valid authenticated session with low privileges. The attacker sends a crafted HTTP request to the vulnerable plugin endpoint. Because no user interaction is required beyond authentication, exploitation can be automated across sites running the affected plugin version. Refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for the technical write-up.

// No verified proof-of-concept code is publicly available for this CVE.
// See the Patchstack advisory for technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-39560

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected modifications to Live Forms plugin configuration or form definitions performed by non-administrator accounts.
HTTP POST or AJAX requests to Live Forms plugin endpoints originating from user sessions lacking appropriate roles.
WordPress audit log entries showing subscriber or contributor accounts triggering plugin admin actions.

Detection Strategies

Review WordPress access logs for requests to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php or plugin-specific endpoints correlated with low-privileged user sessions.
Deploy a web application firewall rule that inspects requests to Live Forms endpoints and validates the requesting user's capability against the action.
Enable a WordPress activity logging plugin to record capability-sensitive plugin actions and alert on anomalies.

Monitoring Recommendations

Monitor for creation, modification, or deletion of Live Forms records by accounts other than administrators.
Track HTTP 200 responses from plugin endpoints where the authenticated role does not match the expected privilege level.
Alert on spikes in authenticated traffic to liveforms plugin URLs following new user registrations.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-39560

Immediate Actions Required

Update the Live Forms plugin to a version released after 4.8.4 that includes the vendor fix.
Audit existing WordPress user accounts and remove or downgrade any unnecessary low-privileged accounts that could be leveraged for exploitation.
Review Live Forms data for unauthorized changes introduced prior to patching.

Patch Information

At the time of publication, the vendor advisory tracked by Patchstack lists the vulnerable range as n/a through <= 4.8.4. Administrators should upgrade to the latest available release of the plugin and verify the installed version through the WordPress plugins dashboard.

Workarounds

Disable the Live Forms plugin until a patched version can be installed if the plugin is not business-critical.
Restrict access to WordPress user registration and require administrator approval for new accounts to reduce the pool of authenticated attackers.
Deploy WAF rules that block unauthenticated or low-privileged access to Live Forms plugin endpoints.

bash

# Disable the Live Forms plugin via WP-CLI until patched
wp plugin deactivate liveforms

# Verify the installed plugin version
wp plugin get liveforms --field=version