VulnerabilityAwaiting classification

CVE-2025-14829

CRITICAL · 9.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-01-13
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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 E-xact | Hosted Payment | WordPress plugin through 2.0 is vulnerable to arbitrary file deletion due to insufficient file path validation. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to delete arbitrary files on the server.

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 E-xact Hosted Payment WordPress plugin through version 2.0 lacks proper validation on file paths in a deletion function, allowing unauthenticated attackers to supply arbitrary file paths and cause deletion of any file accessible to the webserver process.

MitigationUpdate to the latest patched version of the plugin immediately. If no patch is available, disable the plugin or restrict webserver access to prevent exploitation.

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
High
Availability
High

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

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. Confirm E-xact Hosted Payment plugin is installed
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'E-xact Hosted Payment' or 'exact-host' in the plugin list. Alternatively, check the /wp-content/plugins/ directory for a folder named 'exact-host', 'e-xact-hosted', or similar.
    Affected if The plugin appears in the installed plugins list
  2. Identify installed plugin version
    Click 'View details' on the plugin in WordPress admin, or check the main plugin PHP file header for the 'Version' tag. Common path: /wp-content/plugins/[plugin-folder]/exact-transact.php or similar main file.
    Affected if The version number is 2.0 or lower, or if no version is displayed (plugin may be unmaintained)
  3. Check if plugin deletion function is accessible
    Review plugin code for the vulnerable deletion function (look for functions using unlink() or wp_delete_file() without sanitization on user input). Test if the endpoint responds to unauthenticated requests.
    Affected if The deletion function accepts unsanitized file path parameters from unauthenticated requests
  4. Verify webserver has write access to sensitive files
    Check file permissions on wp-config.php, .htaccess, and other critical WordPress files. If the webserver user can write to these files, they can be deleted.
    Affected if Critical WordPress files are writable by the webserver process (permissions 644 or higher on files that should be read-only)

You are affected if the E-xact Hosted Payment plugin version 2.0 or lower is installed and active, and the webserver process has write access to files outside the plugin directory.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update to the latest patched version of the plugin immediately. If no patch is available, disable the plugin or restrict webserver access to prevent exploitation.

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

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-14829 — 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-2025-14829 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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