dbcve.org
Missing AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-862

CVE-2025-11835

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-11-05
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
62/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of data due to a missing capability and validation check on the PMS_AJAX_Checkout_Handler::process_payment() function in all versions up to, and including, 2.16.4. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to trigger stored auto-renew charges for arbitrary members.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

The WordPress Paid Membership Subscriptions plugin has a broken access control vulnerability in its AJAX checkout handler. The `PMS_AJAX_Checkout_Handler::process_payment()` function lacks both a capability check (authorization) and input validation, allowing unauthenticated attackers to invoke the payment processing function directly and trigger stored auto-renew charges on arbitrary user membership accounts.

MitigationUpdate the plugin to version 2.16.5 or later when released. In the interim, disable the site or restrict AJAX endpoints at the web server level if possible, and monitor for unauthorized billing activity.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify if Paid Membership Subscriptions plugin is installed
    Locate the plugin files in your WordPress installation under wp-content/plugins/paid-memberships-subscription or check via WordPress admin under Plugins > Installed Plugins
    Affected if The plugin is not found in the WordPress installation, then this CVE does not apply
  2. Check the installed plugin version
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for the version number next to Paid Membership Subscriptions, or open the main plugin file (paid-memberships-subscription.php) and locate the Version header
    Affected if The installed version is lower than 2.16.5
  3. Verify AJAX checkout endpoint accessibility
    Check if the WordPress AJAX endpoint /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php is accessible and the plugin's AJAX handlers are registered. Inspect the plugin code for PMS_AJAX_Checkout_Handler class and its action hooks
    Affected if The AJAX endpoint is publicly accessible and the plugin's checkout AJAX handler is active (this is the default configuration)
  4. Review membership and billing logs for unauthorized activity
    Check WordPress debug logs, payment gateway logs, and the plugin's own transaction logs for unusual membership upgrades, new subscriptions, or auto-renew charges on user accounts that were not initiated by legitimate users
    Affected if There are membership transactions or billing events that correlate with suspicious IP addresses or cannot be traced to legitimate user actions

You are affected if the Paid Membership Subscriptions plugin is installed with a version lower than 2.16.5 and the AJAX checkout functionality is accessible, indicating the broken access control vulnerability could be exploited.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update the plugin to version 2.16.5 or later when released. In the interim, disable the site or restrict AJAX endpoints at the web server level if possible, and monitor for unauthorized billing activity.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Paid Membership Subscriptions version 2.16.5

  1. Update the Paid Membership Subscriptions plugin to version 2.16.5 or later
  2. Verify the update was successful by checking the plugin version in WordPress admin under Plugins > Installed Plugins
  3. Test that membership checkout and payment processing still functions correctly after the update
  4. Ensure all other WordPress plugins and the core are also kept up to date

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,560.

Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-11835 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data