CVE-2026-25309
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 · uneditedMissing Authorization vulnerability in PublishPress PublishPress Authors publishpress-authors allows Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels.This issue affects PublishPress Authors: from n/a through <= 4.10.1.
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 confidencePublishPress Authors plugin versions through 4.10.1 contain a Missing Authorization vulnerability allowing unauthenticated or unauthorized users to perform actions that should be restricted by access control. The plugin fails to properly enforce capability checks or authorization controls on certain functions or AJAX endpoints, enabling attackers to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels.
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
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm PublishPress Authors plugin is installedNavigate to WordPress admin dashboard > Plugins, or inspect the plugin directory (wp-content/plugins/publishpress-authors) to verify the plugin is presentAffected if The plugin is not installed or has been removed entirely
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Identify the installed version of PublishPress AuthorsIn WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and locate the version number next to PublishPress Authors, or check the main plugin file (e.g., publishpress-authors.php) for the 'Version' headerAffected if Version is 4.10.1 or earlier (the affected range is through 4.10.1)
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Check if AJAX actions are accessible without authenticationSend a test request to the WordPress admin-ajax.php endpoint with a publishpress_authors-related action parameter (such as any nonces or capability checks on plugin AJAX handlers) without valid authentication credentialsAffected if AJAX endpoints respond successfully or return expected data without requiring authentication or capability verification
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Review plugin capability checks on sensitive functionsInspect the plugin source code for functions handling user data, settings changes, or content modifications; verify that functions like checking current_user_can() or wp_verify_nonce() are properly implemented on sensitive operationsAffected if Sensitive functions lack proper capability checks or authorization validation
If PublishPress Authors version is 4.10.1 or earlier and the plugin's AJAX endpoints or sensitive functions are accessible without authentication or capability verification, the environment is affected by this vulnerability.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataUpdate PublishPress Authors to the latest version (4.10.2 or later) which contains proper authorization checks. If immediate update is not possible, review and restrict access to affected plugin endpoints via server-side configuration or disable vulnerable functionality until the patch can be applied.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-25309 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-25309 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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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.
- 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