CVE-2025-12095 identifies a critical Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Simple Registration for WooCommerce plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 1.5.8. The vulnerability stems from the absence of nonce validation in the role requests admin page handler located in includes/display-role-admin.php. Nonce validation is a security mechanism that helps verify that requests to perform sensitive actions originate from legitimate sources. Without this protection, an attacker can craft a malicious request that, when executed by an authenticated administrator (for example, by clicking a specially crafted link), causes the system to approve pending role requests. This approval process can escalate user privileges by assigning higher roles than intended, potentially granting administrative or other elevated permissions to unauthorized users. The attack vector requires no prior authentication by the attacker but does require user interaction from an administrator, such as clicking a link. The vulnerability impacts the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected WordPress site by allowing unauthorized privilege escalation, which could lead to data theft, site defacement, or denial of service. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.8 reflects the high impact and relatively low complexity of exploitation. Although no exploits have been reported in the wild yet, the vulnerability poses a significant risk to sites using this plugin, especially those with active administrative users. The lack of nonce validation is a common security oversight in WordPress plugins, making this a critical issue that requires prompt attention. The vulnerability was published on October 25, 2025, and is tracked under CWE-352 (Cross-Site Request Forgery).

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability can be substantial, particularly for e-commerce businesses relying on WooCommerce and the Simple Registration plugin to manage user roles and registrations. Unauthorized privilege escalation can lead to attackers gaining administrative control over the website, enabling them to manipulate product listings, access sensitive customer data including payment information, or disrupt business operations. This can result in financial losses, reputational damage, and regulatory non-compliance, especially under GDPR requirements for protecting personal data. The vulnerability's ease of exploitation via social engineering increases risk, as attackers can target administrators through phishing campaigns. Organizations with high volumes of administrative activity or those that allow multiple administrators are more exposed. Additionally, compromised sites can be used as platforms for further attacks, such as distributing malware or launching attacks on customers. The absence of known exploits in the wild suggests a window of opportunity for proactive defense, but also means organizations should not underestimate the threat given the high CVSS score and potential impact.

1. Immediate mitigation should focus on restricting administrative access to trusted personnel only and enforcing strong authentication mechanisms such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce the risk of compromised admin accounts. 2. Administrators should be trained to recognize phishing and social engineering attempts to prevent inadvertent execution of malicious requests. 3. Implement web application firewalls (WAFs) with rules to detect and block CSRF attack patterns targeting the vulnerable endpoints. 4. Monitor administrative actions and audit logs closely for unusual role approval activities. 5. Developers and site administrators should update the plugin to a patched version as soon as it becomes available; if no patch exists yet, consider temporarily disabling the role request approval feature or the plugin itself to mitigate risk. 6. Site owners can implement custom nonce validation or CSRF tokens on the affected admin page as an interim fix. 7. Regularly review and minimize the number of users with administrative privileges to limit potential damage. 8. Employ security plugins that provide additional CSRF protections and harden WordPress installations. 9. Conduct penetration testing and vulnerability assessments to identify and remediate similar weaknesses proactively.