CVE-2025-49241: oik WordPress Plugin Auth Bypass Flaw

CVE-2025-49241 Overview

CVE-2025-49241 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability [CWE-862] affecting the bobbingwide oik WordPress plugin through version 4.15.1. The flaw stems from incorrectly configured access control security levels, allowing unauthenticated network-based attackers to reach functionality that should require authorization. Successful exploitation exposes limited confidential information but does not affect data integrity or availability. The vulnerability was published to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) on June 6, 2025.

Critical Impact
Unauthenticated attackers can access restricted plugin functionality over the network without user interaction, resulting in limited information disclosure from WordPress sites running vulnerable oik plugin versions.

Affected Products

bobbingwide oik WordPress plugin — versions up to and including 4.15.1
WordPress installations with the oik plugin activated
Sites relying on oik shortcode and administrative helper functionality

Discovery Timeline

2025-06-06 - CVE-2025-49241 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-49241

Vulnerability Analysis

The oik plugin exposes one or more endpoints or actions without properly verifying that the requester is authorized to invoke them. This is a Broken Access Control issue classified under [CWE-862] Missing Authorization. Attackers reach the vulnerable code path over the network using a standard HTTP request against the WordPress site.

The attack requires no privileges and no user interaction. The scope remains unchanged, meaning the attacker operates within the security context of the vulnerable WordPress application. Impact is limited to confidentiality — attackers can read data they should not be able to access, but they cannot modify records or take the site offline through this specific flaw.

The EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) probability sits at 0.29% as of July 2026, and no public proof-of-concept exploit or CISA KEV listing has been recorded.

Root Cause

The root cause is the absence of a capability check before executing a privileged action. WordPress plugins are expected to call current_user_can() or verify nonces via check_admin_referer() before serving sensitive data. In vulnerable oik builds, one or more handlers omit these checks, allowing anonymous callers to invoke behavior intended for authenticated users.

Attack Vector

An attacker sends a crafted HTTP request to the WordPress site targeting the unprotected oik handler. Because the endpoint does not evaluate the caller's role or capability, the plugin returns data that should be gated by an access control decision. See the Patchstack WordPress Vulnerability Report for endpoint-level detail.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-49241

Indicators of Compromise

Anonymous HTTP requests to oik plugin admin-ajax.php actions or plugin-specific endpoints from unexpected source addresses.
WordPress access logs showing successful 200 OK responses to plugin routes from clients that never authenticated.
Unusual spikes in requests referencing oik shortcodes or helper functions from a single IP or ASN.

Detection Strategies

Inventory WordPress installations and identify sites running the oik plugin at version 4.15.1 or earlier using centralized plugin telemetry.
Parse web server access logs for requests to oik-related paths that return 200 status codes without a preceding authenticated session cookie.
Deploy web application firewall (WAF) rules that alert on unauthenticated calls to plugin AJAX actions.

Monitoring Recommendations

Continuously monitor plugin version drift across the WordPress fleet and flag any host still running vulnerable oik builds.
Correlate outbound data volume from WordPress hosts against baseline to catch bulk information disclosure.
Forward WordPress and web server logs to a centralized data lake for retention and query at scale.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-49241

Immediate Actions Required

Upgrade the oik plugin to a version later than 4.15.1 once the maintainer publishes a fixed release.
Disable or deactivate the oik plugin on any WordPress instance where an update is not yet available and the functionality is not business-critical.
Restrict access to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php and plugin endpoints from untrusted networks using a WAF or reverse proxy allowlist.

Patch Information

Refer to the Patchstack WordPress Vulnerability Report for the authoritative fixed-version information and vendor coordination status. Apply the patched release from the WordPress plugin repository as soon as it becomes available.

Workarounds

Block unauthenticated requests to oik plugin endpoints at the WAF layer until the plugin is updated.
Enforce IP allowlisting on /wp-admin/ paths so that only trusted administrators can reach plugin handlers.
Remove the oik plugin if it is not required, then audit content for shortcodes that would break without it.

bash

# Example WAF rule (ModSecurity) to block unauthenticated oik endpoint access
SecRule REQUEST_URI "@rx /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" \
    "chain,phase:2,deny,status:403,id:1004924,\
    msg:'CVE-2025-49241 - Block unauthenticated oik plugin access'"
    SecRule ARGS:action "@rx ^oik_" \
        "chain"
        SecRule &REQUEST_COOKIES:/wordpress_logged_in_/ "@eq 0"