CVE-2025-57976: CardCom Payment Gateway Auth Bypass Flaw

CVE-2025-57976 Overview

CVE-2025-57976 is a missing authorization vulnerability affecting the CardCom Payment Gateway plugin for WooCommerce (woo-cardcom-payment-gateway). The flaw stems from incorrectly configured access control security levels, allowing unauthenticated network attackers to reach functionality that should require authorization. The issue affects all plugin versions up to and including 3.5.0.7. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-862: Missing Authorization. Impact is limited to integrity, with no direct effect on confidentiality or availability of the underlying WordPress site.

Critical Impact
Unauthenticated attackers can invoke protected plugin actions on WordPress sites running vulnerable versions of the CardCom Payment Gateway, potentially manipulating payment-related data.

Affected Products

CardCom CardCom Payment Gateway (woo-cardcom-payment-gateway) WordPress plugin
All versions from n/a through 3.5.0.7
WooCommerce installations integrating CardCom for payment processing

Discovery Timeline

2025-09-22 - CVE-2025-57976 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-57976

Vulnerability Analysis

The CardCom Payment Gateway plugin exposes one or more endpoints or actions that fail to verify the caller's authorization state. Under CWE-862, the application performs an action without first confirming the requester has permission to perform it. Because the attack vector is network-based and no authentication or user interaction is required, any remote actor can reach the vulnerable code path. The recorded EPSS probability is 0.258%, placing exploitation likelihood in the lower tier relative to other disclosed CVEs.

Root Cause

The root cause is an access control check that is either missing or insufficient on plugin functionality intended for privileged users or authenticated flows. WordPress plugins typically enforce authorization using current_user_can() capability checks, nonce validation via check_admin_referer() or wp_verify_nonce(), or role-based gating on AJAX and REST endpoints registered through add_action('wp_ajax_...') or register_rest_route(). When these checks are omitted or applied only on the client side, request handlers execute regardless of the caller's identity.

Attack Vector

An attacker sends a crafted HTTP request directly to the vulnerable plugin endpoint on a target WordPress site. No credentials, tokens, or user interaction are required. Because the CVSS impact metrics indicate integrity impact only (I:L), the affected functionality allows modification of a limited subset of data rather than full read or destructive access. Consult the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for endpoint-specific technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-57976

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected HTTP POST or GET requests to admin-ajax.php or plugin-specific REST routes containing CardCom action parameters from unauthenticated sessions.
WooCommerce order or payment configuration changes with no corresponding admin login events in the audit log.
Requests originating from external IP addresses targeting wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action parameters referencing CardCom handlers.

Detection Strategies

Audit web server access logs for requests to woo-cardcom-payment-gateway paths lacking a valid authenticated session cookie.
Correlate WordPress option or postmeta changes against authenticated admin activity to surface out-of-band modifications.
Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule that flags unauthenticated access to the plugin's AJAX and REST endpoints.

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable WordPress activity logging to record option changes, plugin setting modifications, and order state transitions.
Alert on anomalous spikes in requests to admin-ajax.php with CardCom-specific action values.
Monitor outbound traffic from WordPress hosts for unexpected connections to payment or webhook destinations following suspicious inbound requests.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-57976

Immediate Actions Required

Identify all WordPress sites running the CardCom Payment Gateway plugin and confirm the installed version against 3.5.0.7 or earlier.
Apply the vendor-supplied update as soon as a fixed release is available from the plugin repository.
Restrict access to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php and REST endpoints at the WAF layer while remediation is pending.

Patch Information

At the time of the NVD entry, the vulnerability affects versions through 3.5.0.7. Site operators should monitor the Patchstack Vulnerability Report and the plugin's official WordPress.org page for a patched release that addresses the missing authorization check.

Workarounds

Deactivate the CardCom Payment Gateway plugin until a fixed version is available if CardCom processing is not business-critical.
Add WAF rules that require an authenticated WordPress session cookie for any request targeting plugin-specific action parameters.
Restrict administrative endpoints (/wp-admin/, admin-ajax.php) to allowlisted IP addresses where feasible.

bash

# Example nginx location block restricting admin-ajax.php by IP
location = /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php {
    allow 203.0.113.0/24;   # trusted admin network
    deny all;
    include fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm.sock;
}