Missing AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-862

CVE-2025-66124

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 ZEEN101 Leaky Paywall leaky-paywall allows Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels.This issue affects Leaky Paywall: from n/a through <= 4.22.6.

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

Missing Authorization vulnerability in ZEEN101 Leaky Paywall plugin allows attackers to access functionality without proper authentication due to incorrectly configured access control security levels. The plugin fails to enforce proper capability checks on certain endpoints or functions, enabling unauthorized users to potentially exploit paywall features.

MitigationUpdate Leaky Paywall to the latest available version (if a version beyond 4.22.6 is released) to obtain vendor patches. If no patched version exists, implement WordPress capability checks at the application level or restrict access via server-side configuration until a fix is 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
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. Confirm Leaky Paywall plugin is installed
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'Leaky Paywall' by ZEEN101. Note whether it is active or inactive.
    Affected if The plugin is installed and active.
  2. Identify the installed Leaky Paywall version
    Click on the plugin name in Plugins > Installed Plugins to view the version number, or inspect the plugin file header in wp-content/plugins/leaky-paywall/plugin.php for the 'Version' field.
    Affected if The installed version is prior to the patched release (version 4.22.6 or later if a fix was released).
  3. Check for unauthenticated access to subscriber functions
    Use a tool like curl or Burp Suite to send requests to common Leaky Paywall endpoints (such as /?xml=1, /?rest_route=, or ajax handlers) WITHOUT providing authentication credentials. Inspect the HTTP response for successful data access rather than an authorization error.
    Affected if Requests without authentication tokens return expected subscriber content or success responses instead of 401/403 errors.
  4. Inspect capability checks in plugin code
    If you have file access, search the leaky-paywall directory for calls to current_user_can, wp_get_current_user, or capability checks. Look for endpoints or functions referenced in the plugin that may lack these checks.
    Affected if Functions or endpoints handling sensitive paywall data are found without proper current_user_can() validation.

You are affected if the Leaky Paywall plugin is active and running a version without the authorization fix, where unauthenticated users can access restricted paywall functionality.

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 Leaky Paywall to the latest available version (if a version beyond 4.22.6 is released) to obtain vendor patches. If no patched version exists, implement WordPress capability checks at the application level or restrict access via server-side configuration until a fix is available.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $860
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,376.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-66124 — 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-2025-66124 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