CVE-2025-69300: Elementor Premium Addons Auth Bypass Flaw

CVE-2025-69300 Overview

CVE-2025-69300 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability (CWE-862) affecting the Premium Addons for Elementor WordPress plugin developed by Leap13. This vulnerability allows attackers to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels, potentially enabling unauthorized modification of plugin settings without proper authentication or authorization checks.

The Premium Addons for Elementor plugin is a popular WordPress extension that provides additional widgets and elements for the Elementor page builder. The missing authorization flaw allows attackers to bypass intended access controls and manipulate plugin settings that should be restricted to authenticated administrators.

Critical Impact

Unauthorized users can exploit misconfigured access controls to change plugin settings, potentially affecting site functionality, security configurations, or enabling further attack vectors on affected WordPress installations.

Affected Products

• Premium Addons for Elementor versions from n/a through 4.11.63
• WordPress sites running vulnerable versions of the premium-addons-for-elementor plugin
• Elementor-based WordPress installations with the Premium Addons extension

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-01-22 - CVE-2025-69300 published to NVD
• 2026-01-22 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-69300

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability stems from a Missing Authorization weakness (CWE-862), where the Premium Addons for Elementor plugin fails to properly verify user permissions before allowing access to sensitive functionality. When authorization checks are absent or improperly implemented, users who should not have access to certain features can perform privileged actions.

In WordPress plugin development, proper authorization typically involves checking user capabilities using functions like current_user_can() before executing privileged operations. The absence of such checks in the affected plugin versions allows lower-privileged users or even unauthenticated visitors to access functionality intended only for administrators.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-69300 is the absence of proper capability checks in the plugin's settings change functionality. WordPress plugins must implement authorization checks to ensure that only users with appropriate permissions (such as manage_options for administrators) can modify plugin configurations.

The vulnerability exists because the affected code paths that handle settings modifications do not validate whether the requesting user has the necessary WordPress capabilities to perform these actions. This represents a fundamental security oversight in the plugin's access control implementation.

Attack Vector

An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by directly accessing the vulnerable plugin endpoints or AJAX handlers that lack proper authorization checks. The attack does not require authentication in some scenarios, or may only require a low-privileged WordPress user account.

The exploitation process typically involves:

1. Identifying the vulnerable AJAX action or REST API endpoint exposed by the plugin
2. Crafting a request to the endpoint without proper authentication or with minimal privileges
3. Modifying plugin settings that should be restricted to administrators
4. Potentially leveraging the changed settings for further attacks or site compromise

Since no verified code examples are available, the specific exploitation mechanism involves sending crafted HTTP requests to WordPress AJAX handlers or REST endpoints that the plugin registers without proper capability_callback or current_user_can() checks. Technical details can be found in the Patchstack security advisory.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-69300

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected changes to Premium Addons for Elementor plugin settings without administrator action
• Suspicious HTTP POST requests to WordPress AJAX endpoints (admin-ajax.php) or REST API routes related to the plugin
• Unusual user activity patterns showing settings modifications from non-administrator accounts
• Web server logs showing repeated access to plugin-specific endpoints from unauthorized sources

Detection Strategies

• Monitor WordPress admin-ajax.php requests for actions related to premium-addons or pa_ prefixed actions from unauthenticated or low-privileged users
• Implement file integrity monitoring to detect unexpected changes to plugin configuration files or database options
• Review WordPress audit logs for settings changes made by users without administrative capabilities
• Deploy web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block suspicious requests to vulnerable endpoints

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable comprehensive logging for WordPress AJAX requests and REST API calls
• Configure alerts for any settings modifications to the Premium Addons for Elementor plugin options in the wp_options table
• Monitor for new or modified WordPress options with prefixes like pa_ or premium_addons_
• Implement SentinelOne's WordPress application monitoring to detect unauthorized configuration changes in real-time

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-69300

Immediate Actions Required

• Update Premium Addons for Elementor to a version newer than 4.11.63 immediately
• Audit current plugin settings to ensure no unauthorized modifications have been made
• Review WordPress user accounts and remove any suspicious or unnecessary accounts with elevated privileges
• Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to provide additional protection against exploitation attempts

Patch Information

The vulnerability affects Premium Addons for Elementor versions through 4.11.63. Site administrators should update to the latest available version of the plugin through the WordPress plugin repository. For detailed patch information, refer to the Patchstack vulnerability database entry.

Workarounds

• If immediate patching is not possible, temporarily deactivate the Premium Addons for Elementor plugin until an update can be applied
• Restrict access to the WordPress admin area and AJAX endpoints using server-level access controls or .htaccess rules
• Implement additional authorization checks at the web server or WAF level to block unauthenticated requests to plugin endpoints
• Consider using WordPress security plugins that can add capability checks to vulnerable endpoints

# Temporary .htaccess protection for WordPress admin AJAX
# Add to WordPress root .htaccess file

<Files admin-ajax.php>
    <RequireAll>
        Require all granted
        # Consider adding IP restrictions if applicable
        # Require ip 192.168.1.0/24
    </RequireAll>
</Files>

# Block suspicious plugin-related requests (use with caution)
# RewriteEngine On
# RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} admin-ajax\.php
# RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} action=pa_.*settings [NC]
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !wordpress_logged_in
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]