Missing AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-862

CVE-2025-68505

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-12-24
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 icc0rz H5P h5p allows Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels.This issue affects H5P: from n/a through <= 1.16.1.

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

Missing authorization vulnerability in the H5P WordPress plugin (versions <= 1.16.1) allows unauthenticated attackers to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels. The vulnerability stems from improper authorization checks that fail to validate user permissions before allowing access to certain functionality.

MitigationReview and correct the access control security level configuration in H5P settings, ensuring all sensitive operations enforce proper authorization checks based on user roles and permissions.

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
Low
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/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. Confirm H5P plugin is installed
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and locate H5P, or check /wp-content/plugins/ directory for h5p folder. Alternatively, search the WordPress database in wp_options for option_name containing 'h5p'
    Affected if H5P plugin is present in the WordPress installation
  2. Check H5P plugin version
    View the plugin file header in wp-content/plugins/h5p/h5p.php or h5p.php to read the Version: field, or check the WordPress plugins page listing
    Affected if Version is 1.16.1 or lower (the affected range)
  3. Identify access control security level setting
    In WordPress admin, navigate to H5P > Settings > Security and Permissions (or similar H5P settings page). Look for a setting labeled 'Security level', 'Access control', or 'Library access' that controls who can upload or manage H5P content
    Affected if The security level is set to a permissive value (such as 'Open', 'Anyone', or 'Public') that allows unauthenticated access to sensitive operations
  4. Test for unauthenticated access to H5P endpoints
    Using a tool like curl, send a request to H5P AJAX endpoints (e.g., /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=h5p_library) or H5P content upload endpoints without providing authentication cookies or credentials
    Affected if The request succeeds and returns content or functionality that should require authentication, indicating the authorization bypass is active

A user is affected if the H5P plugin version is 1.16.1 or lower AND the security level is configured to allow unauthenticated access to sensitive H5P operations.

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

Review and correct the access control security level configuration in H5P settings, ensuring all sensitive operations enforce proper authorization checks based on user roles and permissions.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-68505 — 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-2025-68505 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