CVE-2025-53421: Accordion Plugin Authorization Bypass Flaw

CVE-2025-53421 Overview

CVE-2025-53421 is a missing authorization vulnerability in the PickPlugins Accordion (accordions) plugin for WordPress. The flaw affects all versions up to and including 2.3.14. It stems from incorrectly configured access control security levels that allow authenticated low-privilege users to perform actions restricted to higher-privilege roles. The issue is tracked under CWE-862: Missing Authorization.

Critical Impact
An authenticated attacker with low privileges can access or manipulate plugin functionality that should be restricted, leading to disclosure of sensitive plugin-managed data across the WordPress site.

Affected Products

PickPlugins Accordion (accordions) WordPress plugin
All versions up to and including 2.3.14
WordPress installations with the vulnerable plugin activated

Discovery Timeline

2025-10-22 - CVE-2025-53421 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-53421

Vulnerability Analysis

The Accordion plugin exposes functionality without enforcing appropriate capability checks. WordPress plugins must validate user capabilities using functions such as current_user_can() before executing privileged operations. This plugin skips or misapplies those checks on one or more request handlers.

An attacker who holds any authenticated account, including low-privilege roles such as Subscriber, can invoke the affected functionality. The result is broken access control that undermines the site's role-based permission model. The CVSS vector indicates network attack reach, low complexity, and confidentiality impact only, with no effect on integrity or availability.

The EPSS score is 0.294% at the 22nd percentile, indicating a low probability of exploitation activity in the near term. However, WordPress plugin flaws of this class are routinely weaponized once public detail is available.

Root Cause

The root cause is a missing authorization check on one or more plugin endpoints or AJAX handlers. The plugin trusts that the request originates from an authorized user without verifying the caller's capabilities. This maps directly to CWE-862, Missing Authorization.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires network access to the WordPress site and a valid authenticated session with low privileges. An attacker sends a crafted request to the vulnerable plugin endpoint, bypassing the intended role-based restrictions. No user interaction is required beyond the attacker's own authenticated request.

A complete technical breakdown is available in the Patchstack Vulnerability Report.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-53421

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected requests from low-privilege user accounts to admin-ajax.php or plugin-specific REST endpoints associated with the Accordion plugin
Modifications to accordion content or plugin settings that cannot be attributed to administrator activity
New or unexpected Subscriber-level accounts that immediately interact with plugin management functions

Detection Strategies

Review WordPress access logs for HTTP POST requests to plugin endpoints originating from non-administrative sessions
Enable WordPress audit logging plugins to capture capability-sensitive actions and correlate them with the calling user role
Inspect installed plugin versions across managed WordPress sites and flag any Accordion plugin at version 2.3.14 or earlier

Monitoring Recommendations

Alert on anomalous authenticated activity from low-privilege roles targeting plugin AJAX actions
Track version inventory of WordPress plugins to identify unpatched instances
Forward web server and WordPress application logs to a centralized analytics pipeline for correlation and long-term retention

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-53421

Immediate Actions Required

Update the PickPlugins Accordion plugin to a version later than 2.3.14 as soon as a patched release is available
Audit all existing user accounts and remove any unrecognized low-privilege users
Restrict new user registration on WordPress sites that do not require public sign-up

Patch Information

At the time of publication, the vulnerability affects Accordion versions up to and including 2.3.14. Administrators should monitor the Patchstack advisory and the plugin's WordPress.org listing for a fixed release, then update immediately.

Workarounds

Deactivate and remove the Accordion plugin until a patched version is released if the functionality is not business-critical
Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block unauthenticated and low-privilege requests to the plugin's affected endpoints
Disable open user registration by unsetting the Anyone can register option in WordPress general settings

bash

# Configuration example: disable open registration and enforce default role
wp option update users_can_register 0
wp option update default_role subscriber

# Inventory the installed Accordion plugin version
wp plugin get accordions --field=version