CVE-2025-66136: Carter for Elementor Auth Bypass Flaw

CVE-2025-66136 Overview

CVE-2025-66136 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability (CWE-862) affecting the Carter for Elementor WordPress plugin developed by merkulove. This vulnerability allows attackers to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels, potentially leading to unauthorized access to protected functionality within WordPress sites using the affected plugin.

Critical Impact

Attackers can bypass access control mechanisms to perform unauthorized actions on WordPress sites using Carter for Elementor plugin versions up to and including 1.0.2.

Affected Products

• Carter for Elementor WordPress plugin versions through 1.0.2
• WordPress installations with the carter-elementor plugin active

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-01-22 - CVE CVE-2025-66136 published to NVD
• 2026-01-22 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-66136

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability falls under the category of Broken Access Control, which occurs when an application fails to properly enforce authorization checks before allowing access to protected resources or functionality. In the context of Carter for Elementor, the plugin lacks proper authorization verification on certain operations, allowing unauthenticated or low-privileged users to perform actions that should be restricted to administrators or other authorized roles.

WordPress plugins that extend Elementor page builder functionality often register AJAX endpoints or REST API routes that perform administrative tasks. When these endpoints lack proper capability checks using functions like current_user_can(), any user—including unauthenticated visitors—may be able to invoke these functions.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-66136 is the absence of authorization checks (CWE-862: Missing Authorization) in the Carter for Elementor plugin. The plugin fails to verify that the user initiating a request has the appropriate permissions before executing the requested action. This is a common vulnerability pattern in WordPress plugins where developers rely on obscurity or nonce verification alone without implementing proper capability checks.

Proper WordPress security requires both nonce verification (to prevent CSRF) and capability checks (to enforce authorization). Missing either of these controls creates exploitable security gaps.

Attack Vector

An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted requests to the vulnerable plugin endpoints without proper authentication. The attack does not require user interaction and can be performed remotely over the network. Exploitation typically involves:

1. Identifying the vulnerable AJAX action or REST endpoint registered by the plugin
2. Crafting HTTP requests to invoke the unprotected functionality
3. Executing unauthorized operations such as modifying plugin settings, accessing restricted data, or performing administrative actions

Since no specific exploit code has been verified for this vulnerability, technical details should be reviewed in the Patchstack WordPress Vulnerability Database for complete technical analysis.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-66136

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected modifications to Elementor page content or widget configurations
• Unusual AJAX requests to WordPress admin-ajax.php targeting carter-elementor actions
• Unauthorized changes to plugin settings or site appearance
• Access log entries showing requests to carter-elementor endpoints from unexpected sources

Detection Strategies

• Monitor WordPress access logs for unusual patterns of requests to admin-ajax.php containing carter-elementor action parameters
• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block unauthorized access attempts to plugin endpoints
• Review WordPress audit logs for unexpected configuration changes attributed to non-administrative users
• Deploy endpoint detection solutions to monitor for suspicious PHP process execution patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable comprehensive logging for all WordPress AJAX and REST API requests
• Implement real-time alerting for any access to sensitive plugin functionality from unauthenticated sessions
• Regularly audit active plugins and their versions against known vulnerability databases
• Use security plugins that provide activity logging and anomaly detection capabilities

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-66136

Immediate Actions Required

• Update Carter for Elementor plugin to a patched version when available from the vendor
• If no patch is available, consider temporarily deactivating the carter-elementor plugin until a fix is released
• Implement Web Application Firewall rules to restrict access to vulnerable endpoints
• Review site for any signs of exploitation or unauthorized modifications

Patch Information

Organizations should monitor the WordPress plugin repository and the Patchstack security advisory for updates regarding a patched version of Carter for Elementor. The vulnerability affects all versions through 1.0.2, so any version above this should include the necessary security fixes once released.

Workarounds

• Temporarily deactivate the Carter for Elementor plugin if it is not essential for site functionality
• Restrict access to WordPress admin-ajax.php for unauthenticated users at the web server level where feasible
• Implement additional access control at the reverse proxy or WAF level to filter requests to vulnerable endpoints
• Consider using WordPress security plugins that provide virtual patching capabilities for known vulnerabilities

# Example: Restrict access to carter-elementor AJAX actions in .htaccess (Apache)
# Note: This is a temporary workaround until an official patch is available
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/wp-admin/admin-ajax\.php$ [NC]
    RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} action=carter [NC]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !wordpress_logged_in [NC]
    RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>