Missing AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-862

CVE-2025-14720

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-01-09
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 Booking for Appointments and Events Calendar – Amelia plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized access due to missing capability checks on multiple AJAX actions in all versions up to, and including, 1.2.38. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to mark payments as refunded, trigger sending of queued notifications (emails/SMS/WhatsApp), and access debug information among other things.

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 Amelia WordPress plugin fails to implement capability checks on multiple AJAX action handlers, allowing unauthenticated users to invoke privileged functions including marking payments as refunded, triggering queued notification delivery (email/SMS/WhatsApp), and accessing debug information.

MitigationUpdate the Amelia plugin to version 1.2.39 or later to receive the vendor's capability check fixes for the affected AJAX endpoints.

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. Locate Amelia plugin and version
    Check the WordPress plugins directory for the Amelia plugin folder, or run 'wp plugin list --plugin=amelia' via WP-CLI to list the installed version.
    Affected if The plugin is installed with a version lower than 1.2.39.
  2. Verify plugin status
    Confirm the Amelia plugin is active by checking the WordPress admin plugins page or running 'wp plugin status amelia' via WP-CLI.
    Affected if The plugin is active and the version is below 1.2.39.
  3. Identify affected AJAX endpoints
    The vulnerability affects AJAX actions handling payment refunds, notification delivery (email/SMS/WhatsApp), and debug information. These are typically found in wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action parameters like 'amelia_refund_payment', 'amelia_send_notification', or similar Amelia-related actions.
    Affected if The installed version is below 1.2.39 and the plugin handles the listed AJAX actions.

You are affected if the Amelia WordPress plugin is installed, active, and running at a version prior to 1.2.39, as these versions lack proper capability checks on the mentioned AJAX endpoints.

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 Amelia plugin to version 1.2.39 or later to receive the vendor's capability check fixes for the affected AJAX endpoints.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Amelia Booking plugin version 1.2.39 or later

  1. Log in to the WordPress admin dashboard
  2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins
  3. Locate the 'Booking for Appointments and Events Calendar – Amelia' plugin
  4. Check the current installed version number
  5. If the installed version is 1.2.38 or lower, click 'Update Now' to update to the latest version
  6. Alternatively, download the latest version from wordpress.org/plugins/ameliabooking/ and upload via Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin
  7. After update, verify the new version number reflects 1.2.39 or higher
  8. Test that the booking calendar and appointment functionality still work correctly

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
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-14720 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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-2025-14720 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