CVE-2025-59567: Coupon Affiliates Auth Bypass Vulnerability

CVE-2025-59567 Overview

CVE-2025-59567 is a missing authorization vulnerability in the Coupon Affiliates plugin (woo-coupon-usage) for WordPress, developed by Elliot Sowersby / RelyWP. The flaw stems from incorrectly configured access control security levels within the plugin. Authenticated users with elevated privileges can perform actions that should be restricted, breaking the plugin's authorization model. All versions of Coupon Affiliates up to and including 6.8.0 are affected. The issue is tracked under CWE-862: Missing Authorization.

Critical Impact
Attackers with high privileges on a vulnerable WordPress site can abuse broken access control in the Coupon Affiliates plugin to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability of affiliate coupon data.

Affected Products

Elliot Sowersby / RelyWP Coupon Affiliates (woo-coupon-usage) plugin for WordPress
All versions from n/a through 6.8.0
WordPress sites running WooCommerce with the Coupon Affiliates plugin installed

Discovery Timeline

2025-09-22 - CVE-2025-59567 published to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD)
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-59567

Vulnerability Analysis

The Coupon Affiliates plugin exposes functionality that does not enforce the correct authorization checks. The plugin relies on access control security levels that are misconfigured, allowing requests to reach sensitive handlers without proper capability verification. As a result, an authenticated actor with the required session context can invoke actions the plugin was intended to restrict.

The vulnerability affects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of affiliate-related data managed by the plugin, including coupon assignments, referral records, and affiliate profile information. Exploitation requires network access and high privileges, and the attack complexity is high, limiting the practical exploitation surface. Additional context is available in the Patchstack advisory for Coupon Affiliates.

Root Cause

The root cause is a missing authorization check [CWE-862] on plugin endpoints. The plugin does not consistently verify whether the requesting user holds the WordPress capability required for the requested action. Access control logic relies on assumptions about the caller's role rather than explicit capability checks such as current_user_can() combined with nonce validation.

Attack Vector

The attack is delivered over the network against the WordPress site hosting the vulnerable plugin. An authenticated user with high privileges submits crafted requests to plugin endpoints that lack proper authorization enforcement. Because the scope is changed, successful exploitation can influence resources beyond the vulnerable component's security scope, affecting other plugin data or site-level affiliate configurations.

No verified proof-of-concept exploit is publicly available, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Refer to the Patchstack advisory for technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-59567

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected modifications to affiliate coupon records, referral counts, or payout configurations in the WooCommerce database
Requests to woo-coupon-usage plugin endpoints (for example, admin-ajax actions prefixed with the plugin namespace) originating from accounts that should not have access
New or altered affiliate accounts created outside of standard administrative workflows

Detection Strategies

Audit WordPress access logs for HTTP requests to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php and REST routes associated with the Coupon Affiliates plugin, correlating user IDs with expected capabilities
Review WooCommerce and plugin logs for unauthorized changes to coupons, affiliate assignments, or commission structures
Compare installed plugin version against the fixed release; flag any host running Coupon Affiliates 6.8.0 or earlier

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable detailed WordPress audit logging to capture user actions on plugin settings and affiliate records
Alert on privilege changes or role assignments to accounts that interact with the Coupon Affiliates plugin
Monitor outbound webhook or email activity from WooCommerce that could indicate abuse of affiliate payout functionality

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-59567

Immediate Actions Required

Identify all WordPress sites running the Coupon Affiliates (woo-coupon-usage) plugin at version 6.8.0 or earlier
Update the plugin to a version later than 6.8.0 once the vendor publishes a fixed release
Restrict administrative and shop-manager accounts to trusted personnel and enforce multi-factor authentication on privileged WordPress accounts

Patch Information

At the time of publication, the Patchstack advisory tracks the vulnerability as affecting Coupon Affiliates up to and including 6.8.0. Administrators should monitor the plugin's WordPress.org page and vendor channels for a patched release and apply it as soon as it becomes available.

Workarounds

Temporarily deactivate the Coupon Affiliates plugin if a patched version is not yet available and the affiliate program is not business-critical
Deploy a web application firewall (WAF) rule to block unauthenticated and low-privilege requests to woo-coupon-usage plugin endpoints
Reduce the number of accounts holding administrator or shop-manager roles to minimize the exploitable population

bash

# Example: list installed plugin versions using WP-CLI to identify vulnerable hosts
wp plugin get woo-coupon-usage --field=version

# Deactivate the vulnerable plugin until a patch is available
wp plugin deactivate woo-coupon-usage