Missing AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-862

CVE-2025-64249

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-12-16
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
Missing Authorization vulnerability in WP-EXPERTS.IN Protect WP Admin protect-wp-admin allows Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels.This issue affects Protect WP Admin: from n/a through <= 4.1.

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 Protect WP Admin WordPress plugin versions through 4.1 contain a missing authorization vulnerability allowing attackers to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels. This broken access control likely permits unauthenticated or under-privileged users to access administrative functions or bypass security restrictions intended to protect wp-admin areas.

MitigationUpdate Protect WP Admin to the latest patched version; if unavailable, manually add proper capability checks and authorization validation to all admin action handlers, or disable the plugin until a fix is released.

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
None
Availability
Low

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

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 Protect WP Admin plugin is installed
    Navigate to WordPress admin dashboard > Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'Protect WP Admin' in the list, or check the /wp-content/plugins/ directory for a folder named 'protect-wp-admin'
    Affected if The plugin Protect WP Admin is present in the WordPress installation
  2. Check the installed plugin version
    In the Plugins list, find Protect WP Admin and view the version number displayed below the plugin name, or read the main plugin PHP file and look for the 'Version' header in the plugin comments
    Affected if The version number is 4.1 or lower (including any 4.0.x, 3.x, 2.x, or 1.x releases)
  3. Confirm the plugin is active
    In WordPress admin > Plugins, verify that Protect WP Admin shows as 'Active' rather than 'Inactive' or 'Must-Use'
    Affected if The plugin is currently activated on the site
  4. Verify if public-facing admin area protection is configured
    Visit the wp-admin login area of the site while logged out to see if Protect WP Admin is intercepting or restricting access, or check the plugin settings page under Settings > Protect WP Admin (if accessible with admin privileges) for active protection rules
    Affected if Protection rules are enabled and the plugin is actively protecting wp-admin areas without proper capability checks in place

A WordPress site running Protect WP Admin version 4.1 or lower with the plugin active and configured to protect admin areas is likely affected by this missing authorization vulnerability.

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 Protect WP Admin to the latest patched version; if unavailable, manually add proper capability checks and authorization validation to all admin action handlers, or disable the plugin until a fix is released.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

4.2

  1. 1. Backup your WordPress site and database before making any changes
  2. 2. Update the Protect WP Admin plugin to the latest available version
  3. 3. Verify the update was successful by checking the plugin version in WordPress admin
  4. 4. Test that the admin protection functionality still works correctly
  5. 5. Confirm that unauthorized access is now properly restricted

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

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-64249 — 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-2025-64249 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