CVE-2025-13403 is a vulnerability classified under CWE-862 (Missing Authorization) found in the Employee Spotlight – Team Member Showcase & Meet the Team plugin for WordPress, developed by emarket-design. The flaw exists in the employee_spotlight_check_optin() function, which handles the modification of tracking settings within the plugin. Due to missing authorization validation, any authenticated user with at least Subscriber-level privileges can enable or disable tracking settings without further permission checks. This vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 5.1.3. The vulnerability does not require elevated privileges beyond Subscriber, does not require user interaction, and can be exploited remotely via network access to the WordPress site. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 5.3, indicating medium severity, with the vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N, meaning the attack vector is network, low attack complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction, unchanged scope, no confidentiality impact, integrity impact limited to tracking settings, and no availability impact. Although the vulnerability does not directly expose sensitive data or cause denial of service, unauthorized modification of tracking settings can undermine privacy controls, compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR, and potentially allow malicious tracking or disable legitimate tracking mechanisms. No patches or official fixes have been released at the time of publication, and no known exploits have been observed in the wild. The vulnerability was publicly disclosed on December 13, 2025, with the CVE reserved on November 19, 2025. The plugin is widely used in WordPress environments for showcasing team members, making it a relevant target for attackers aiming to manipulate tracking configurations for privacy evasion or data collection.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-13403 lies in the potential violation of privacy and data protection regulations such as the GDPR. Unauthorized modification of tracking settings can lead to improper data collection or disabling of legitimate consent mechanisms, resulting in non-compliance and potential legal penalties. Organizations relying on this plugin for employee showcases may inadvertently expose themselves to regulatory scrutiny if tracking configurations are altered maliciously. Additionally, integrity loss of tracking settings can undermine trust in organizational transparency and data governance. While the vulnerability does not directly compromise confidential data or system availability, the indirect consequences related to privacy breaches and regulatory fines can be significant. Organizations with large WordPress deployments or those in sectors with strict privacy requirements (e.g., finance, healthcare, public sector) are particularly at risk. The ease of exploitation by low-privileged authenticated users increases the threat surface, especially in environments with many users or weak account management policies.

1. Immediately restrict access to the Employee Spotlight plugin settings to trusted administrators only, minimizing the number of users with Subscriber-level or higher privileges who can log in. 2. Implement strict user role and permission management policies to ensure that only necessary users have authenticated access to WordPress sites running this plugin. 3. Monitor and audit changes to tracking settings regularly to detect unauthorized modifications promptly. 4. Disable or remove the Employee Spotlight plugin if it is not essential to reduce the attack surface until a patch is released. 5. Follow the vendor and WordPress plugin repository for updates and apply patches as soon as they become available. 6. Consider deploying Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block suspicious requests targeting the vulnerable function. 7. Educate site administrators and users about the risks of unauthorized access and the importance of strong authentication mechanisms, including multi-factor authentication (MFA). 8. Review and enhance logging and alerting mechanisms to capture anomalous activities related to plugin configuration changes.