Authorization Bypass (IDOR)Weakness · CWE-639

CVE-2025-68514

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-02-20
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
71/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable 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
Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key vulnerability in Cozmoslabs Paid Member Subscriptions paid-member-subscriptions allows Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels.This issue affects Paid Member Subscriptions: from n/a through <= 2.16.8.

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 Paid Member Subscriptions WordPress plugin contains an authorization bypass vulnerability where user-controlled input is improperly used as a key in access control decisions, potentially allowing authenticated users to access functionality or data beyond their authorized permission level.

MitigationUpdate the Paid Member Subscriptions plugin to a version beyond 2.16.8 once available, or implement proper server-side authorization validation that does not rely on user-controllable input for access control decisions.

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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. Identify if Paid Member Subscriptions is installed
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'Paid Member Subscriptions' in the list, or inspect the file /wp-content/plugins/paid-member-subscriptions/ for existence
    Affected if The plugin is present in the WordPress installation
  2. Determine the installed plugin version
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins, find Paid Member Subscriptions, and read the version number displayed below the plugin name; alternatively, check the main plugin file header in /wp-content/plugins/paid-member-subscriptions/paid-member-subscriptions.php for 'Version:'
    Affected if The version is 2.16.8 or lower (any version up to and including 2.16.8)
  3. Identify if the vulnerable access control code path exists
    Review plugin code for authorization logic that uses user-supplied input (such as request parameters, POST/GET variables, or user metadata) as keys in access control checks; common patterns include using $_POST['role'] or $_GET['permission_id'] directly in conditional statements without validation
    Affected if User-controllable input is used as the sole or primary factor in permission decisions without server-side validation against the current user's actual capabilities
  4. Check for evidence of unauthorized access
    Review WordPress activity logs, access logs, and user role/capability audit trails for unusual patterns such as lower-privileged users accessing higher-privilege features, content they should not see, or actions outside their assigned role permissions
    Affected if Logs show authenticated users with limited roles accessing functionality or data reserved for higher-privilege roles

A user is affected if the Paid Member Subscriptions plugin is installed at version 2.16.8 or lower AND the vulnerable authorization logic that relies on user-controllable input is present and accessible to authenticated users.

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 the Paid Member Subscriptions plugin to a version beyond 2.16.8 once available, or implement proper server-side authorization validation that does not rely on user-controllable input for access control decisions.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-68514 — 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-2025-68514 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