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Missing AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-862

CVE-2025-54743

MEDIUM · 5.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-12-18
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
67/100
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
Missing Authorization vulnerability in mkscripts Download After Email download-after-email allows Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels.This issue affects Download After Email: from n/a through 2.1.5-2.1.6.

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 · moderate confidence

The Download After Email WordPress plugin (versions up to 2.1.5-2.1.6) lacks proper authorization checks on its download functionality, allowing unauthenticated attackers to access and download files they should not have permission to access due to incorrectly configured access control security levels.

MitigationImplement proper authorization checks requiring valid user authentication and appropriate capability verification before allowing any file downloads. Update to the latest patched version when available.

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
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:N/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. Verify Download After Email plugin is installed
    Check the WordPress plugins directory (wp-content/plugins/) for the 'download-after-email' folder, or list installed plugins via WP-CLI: wp plugin list --name='download-after-email'
    Affected if The plugin folder exists in the WordPress installation
  2. Identify the installed plugin version
    Open the main plugin file (download-after-email.php) and locate the version header, or run: grep -i 'Version:' wp-content/plugins/download-after-email/*.php
    Affected if The version is 2.1.5 or 2.1.6 (any version up to and including 2.1.6)
  3. Confirm the download endpoint is accessible
    Test accessing the download functionality directly via browser or curl: curl -I 'your-site.com/?dlae_download=1&file=test.pdf' (adjust parameters based on actual plugin endpoint)
    Affected if The download request returns a file without requiring authentication
  4. Inspect access control security level configuration
    Check the plugin settings in WordPress admin under the plugin options, or inspect the database options table for 'dlae_access_level' or similar security setting. Review the plugin source code for how access control is implemented.
    Affected if Access control is set to a low security level (e.g., allowing guest/public access) or the code lacks capability checks before serving files

The environment is affected if the Download After Email plugin versions 2.1.5 or 2.1.6 are installed AND the download functionality is accessible without authentication due to misconfigured access controls.

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

Implement proper authorization checks requiring valid user authentication and appropriate capability verification before allowing any file downloads. Update to the latest patched version when available.

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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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-2025-54743 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