CVE-2025-54667: myCred TOCTOU Race Condition Vulnerability

CVE-2025-54667 Overview

CVE-2025-54667 is a Time-of-Check Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race condition vulnerability in the myCred WordPress plugin developed by Saad Iqbal. The plugin, used for points, rewards, and gamification on WordPress sites, contains a flaw affecting all versions up to and including 2.9.4.3. An unauthenticated attacker can exploit the race window between validation and use of a resource to manipulate integrity-sensitive operations over the network. The weakness is categorized as [CWE-367]. No authentication or user interaction is required to trigger the condition, though the impact is limited to integrity of point balances or related plugin state.

Critical Impact
Unauthenticated network attackers can exploit a race window in myCred <= 2.9.4.3 to bypass validation checks and manipulate plugin state integrity.

Affected Products

myCred WordPress plugin versions up to and including 2.9.4.3
WordPress sites using myCred for points, rewards, or badge management
Any deployment integrating the vulnerable myCred build with public-facing endpoints

Discovery Timeline

2025-08-14 - CVE-2025-54667 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-54667

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a TOCTOU race condition [CWE-367] in the myCred plugin. TOCTOU flaws occur when a program checks the state of a resource and then uses that resource, assuming the state has not changed between the two operations. An attacker who issues concurrent requests can invalidate the assumption made at check time and cause the plugin to act on stale or attacker-controlled state at use time. In myCred, this pattern affects logic that validates point balances, transaction eligibility, or similar integrity-sensitive checks before applying an update.

Root Cause

The root cause is the absence of atomic operations or locking between the validation step and the state-modifying step in affected myCred code paths. Because the check and the use are separated by non-atomic logic, two or more requests processed in parallel can each pass the validation and then each apply the modification. The underlying issue reflects a design pattern that does not account for concurrent HTTP request handling in WordPress environments.

Attack Vector

Exploitation is performed over the network without authentication or user interaction. An attacker sends multiple concurrent HTTP requests to endpoints exposed by the myCred plugin, aiming to hit the window between the plugin's eligibility check and its state update. Successful exploitation results in integrity impact only, such as inconsistent point balances or duplicated reward operations. Confidentiality and availability are not affected. No public proof-of-concept exploit is currently listed, and the vulnerability is not present in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

No verified exploit code is available. Refer to the Patchstack MyCred Plugin Vulnerability advisory for technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-54667

Indicators of Compromise

Bursts of concurrent HTTP requests from the same source IP targeting myCred plugin endpoints within very short time windows
Duplicate or inconsistent entries in myCred transaction logs or point balance history for a single user or event
Point balances that exceed values allowed by configured plugin rules or that increase without matching business events

Detection Strategies

Instrument WordPress request logging to identify parallel requests to the same myCred action from the same session or IP within sub-second intervals
Compare myCred database transaction records against expected event triggers to identify duplicated point awards or redemptions
Alert on unauthenticated bursts against wp-admin/admin-ajax.php and REST endpoints associated with myCred hooks

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable web server access logs with millisecond timestamps and forward them to a central logging platform for concurrency analysis
Set thresholds on myCred point delta rates per user and generate alerts when deltas exceed defined bounds
Track version metadata for installed WordPress plugins and flag any host still running myCred <= 2.9.4.3

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-54667

Immediate Actions Required

Inventory all WordPress instances and identify sites running myCred version 2.9.4.3 or earlier
Update the myCred plugin to the vendor-supplied fixed release as indicated in the Patchstack advisory
Review myCred transaction history for anomalies that may indicate prior exploitation of the race window

Patch Information

The vulnerability affects myCred versions up to and including 2.9.4.3. Administrators should upgrade to the patched release referenced in the Patchstack MyCred Plugin Vulnerability advisory. Verify the installed version via the WordPress plugins page after applying the update.

Workarounds

Restrict access to myCred-related endpoints behind a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with rate limiting on concurrent requests from a single client
Temporarily disable the myCred plugin on sites where an immediate upgrade is not feasible and integrity of point balances is business-critical
Apply request throttling at the reverse proxy layer to reduce the feasibility of triggering the race window

bash

# Example nginx rate limit for myCred endpoints
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=mycred:10m rate=5r/s;

location ~* /wp-admin/admin-ajax\.php$ {
    limit_req zone=mycred burst=5 nodelay;
    proxy_pass http://wordpress_backend;
}