CVE-2025-52757: SUMO Memberships Auth Bypass Flaw

CVE-2025-52757 Overview

CVE-2025-52757 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability [CWE-862] in the FantasticPlugins SUMO Memberships for WooCommerce plugin for WordPress. The flaw affects all versions up to and including 7.8.0 and stems from incorrectly configured access control on plugin endpoints. Authenticated users with low privilege levels can invoke functionality intended for higher-privileged roles, leading to arbitrary content deletion on the WordPress site.

The vulnerability requires network-based access and low privileges, with no user interaction needed. Successful exploitation impacts integrity by allowing unauthorized modification and deletion of site content.

Critical Impact
Authenticated attackers with minimal privileges can delete arbitrary content on affected WordPress sites, disrupting site operations and destroying business data.

Affected Products

FantasticPlugins SUMO Memberships for WooCommerce (versions up to and including 7.8.0)
WordPress installations using the sumomemberships plugin
WooCommerce stores relying on SUMO Memberships for subscription management

Discovery Timeline

2025-10-22 - CVE-2025-52757 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-52757

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in the SUMO Memberships for WooCommerce plugin, which manages membership subscriptions on WooCommerce-based WordPress sites. The plugin exposes AJAX or REST endpoints that perform content deletion actions without adequately verifying the caller's authorization level. Access control checks either rely solely on authentication or apply security controls that do not match the sensitivity of the operation.

An attacker holding a low-privilege authenticated session, such as a subscriber or customer account, can send crafted requests to these endpoints. The plugin executes deletion operations on posts, pages, or membership-related content because the missing authorization check fails to restrict the action to administrators.

Because WooCommerce stores commonly allow open customer registration, obtaining the required low-privilege account is trivial for external attackers.

Root Cause

The root cause is an incorrectly configured access control layer classified under [CWE-862] Missing Authorization. Sensitive plugin actions lack a current_user_can() capability check or equivalent role verification before performing destructive operations. This design flaw permits any authenticated user to reach code paths reserved for site administrators.

Attack Vector

Exploitation occurs over the network against the WordPress site's HTTP interface. The attacker registers or logs into a low-privilege account, then issues a crafted POST request to the vulnerable plugin endpoint. The request triggers arbitrary content deletion without a corresponding capability check. No user interaction from an administrator is required, and the attack scope remains within the vulnerable component.

Refer to the Patchstack WordPress Vulnerability Report for additional technical context on the affected code path.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-52757

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected deletion of WordPress posts, pages, or WooCommerce products without a corresponding administrator action in the audit log.
HTTP POST requests to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php or plugin REST routes originating from low-privilege user sessions.
Spikes in wp_posts table DELETE operations correlated with subscriber or customer account activity.

Detection Strategies

Enable verbose logging for the SUMO Memberships plugin actions and correlate deletion events with the requesting user's role.
Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to flag requests to sumomemberships action handlers from non-administrator sessions.
Monitor WordPress activity logs for content deletion events attributed to accounts lacking the delete_posts capability.

Monitoring Recommendations

Alert on newly registered accounts that immediately invoke plugin-specific AJAX actions.
Track baseline rates of content deletion across the site and trigger alerts on statistically anomalous spikes.
Ingest WordPress and web server logs into a centralized SIEM to correlate authentication events with destructive plugin actions.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-52757

Immediate Actions Required

Update SUMO Memberships for WooCommerce to a version later than 7.8.0 once released by FantasticPlugins.
Audit WordPress content and database backups to identify any unauthorized deletions that may have already occurred.
Review the list of registered users and remove or restrict accounts that show anomalous plugin endpoint activity.

Patch Information

At the time of publication, the vulnerability affects all versions of SUMO Memberships for WooCommerce through 7.8.0. Site administrators should monitor the Patchstack advisory and the FantasticPlugins vendor channel for the fixed release, and apply the patch as soon as it becomes available.

Workarounds

Temporarily deactivate the SUMO Memberships for WooCommerce plugin until a fixed version is installed.
Restrict access to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php from unauthenticated or low-privilege sessions using WAF rules that target plugin-specific action parameters.
Disable open user registration on WordPress or require administrator approval for new accounts to reduce the pool of exploitable identities.
Enforce role-based access reviews and remove unused subscriber or customer accounts.

bash

# Example: restrict SUMO Memberships AJAX actions via .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine On
  RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} action=sumo_memberships_ [NC]
  RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !wordpress_logged_in_admin
  RewriteRule ^wp-admin/admin-ajax\.php$ - [F,L]
</IfModule>