CVE-2025-48246: StellarWP Events Calendar Auth Bypass Flaw

CVE-2025-48246 Overview

CVE-2025-48246 is a missing authorization vulnerability in the StellarWP The Events Calendar plugin for WordPress. The flaw stems from incorrectly configured access control security levels and affects all versions of the plugin up to and including 6.11.2.1. An authenticated attacker with low-level privileges can exploit the weakness over the network to reach functionality that should require higher privileges. The issue is classified under CWE-862: Missing Authorization and impacts the integrity and availability of the calendar component.

Critical Impact
Authenticated users with low privileges can invoke plugin functionality outside their intended authorization scope, altering or disrupting event data on affected WordPress sites.

Affected Products

StellarWP The Events Calendar plugin for WordPress
All versions up to and including 6.11.2.1
WordPress sites with authenticated low-privilege user accounts enabled

Discovery Timeline

2025-05-19 - CVE-2025-48246 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2026-06-17 - Last updated in the NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-48246

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in one or more request handlers exposed by The Events Calendar plugin. These handlers execute privileged actions without verifying that the calling user holds the required WordPress capability. Because the plugin performs authentication checks but omits proper authorization checks, any authenticated account can invoke the affected endpoints. Attackers with a Subscriber-level or similar low-privilege role gain access to functionality reserved for higher roles such as Editor or Administrator.

The attack requires network access and low privileges, with no user interaction. Successful exploitation results in limited impact to integrity and availability, but no direct impact to confidentiality. On sites that permit open user registration, the barrier to exploitation is minimal.

Root Cause

The root cause is a missing capability check within the plugin's request-processing logic. WordPress plugins are expected to gate sensitive actions with current_user_can() or an equivalent capability verification, alongside nonce validation. In the affected versions, these checks are absent or applied to a lower privilege level than the action warrants, producing the broken access control condition described by CWE-862.

Attack Vector

An attacker authenticates to the WordPress site using any valid low-privilege account. They then send crafted HTTP requests to the vulnerable plugin endpoints exposed under admin-ajax.php or the REST API. Because the endpoints do not enforce the correct capability, the plugin processes the request and performs the privileged operation. See the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for additional technical detail.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-48246

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected creation, modification, or deletion of events, venues, or organizers by non-administrator accounts
HTTP POST requests to The Events Calendar AJAX or REST endpoints originating from Subscriber-level sessions
New or altered event metadata correlated with low-privilege user IDs in WordPress audit logs

Detection Strategies

Review WordPress activity logs for privileged actions performed by accounts that should not have that capability
Inspect web server access logs for repeated calls to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php or /wp-json/tribe/ endpoints from a single authenticated user
Correlate plugin version data across managed WordPress sites and flag installations running 6.11.2.1 or earlier

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable a WordPress audit logging plugin to record capability-sensitive actions with user attribution
Forward WordPress and web server logs to a centralized analytics platform for anomaly detection
Alert on newly registered accounts that quickly issue requests to plugin administrative endpoints

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-48246

Immediate Actions Required

Update The Events Calendar plugin to a version later than 6.11.2.1 as soon as the vendor patch is available
Audit existing user accounts and remove or downgrade any unnecessary low-privilege accounts
Disable open user registration on sites that do not require it

Patch Information

Refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for the fixed version and vendor advisory details. Apply the update through the WordPress plugin management console or via WP-CLI once the fix is published.

Workarounds

Restrict access to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php and /wp-json/ endpoints using a web application firewall rule scoped to authenticated low-privilege sessions
Temporarily deactivate The Events Calendar plugin on sites that cannot be patched immediately
Enforce strong authentication and multi-factor authentication for all WordPress accounts to reduce the pool of usable low-privilege sessions

bash

# Update The Events Calendar plugin via WP-CLI once a fixed version is released
wp plugin update the-events-calendar

# Verify the installed version is later than 6.11.2.1
wp plugin get the-events-calendar --field=version