The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-14428 affects the WordPress plugin 'All-in-one Sticky Floating Contact Form, Call, Click to Chat, and 50+ Social Icon Tabs – My Sticky Elements' developed by galdub. This plugin is widely used to provide sticky floating contact forms and social icon tabs on WordPress websites. The root cause is a missing authorization (CWE-862) in the 'my_sticky_elements_bulks' function, which handles bulk operations on contact form leads. Specifically, the plugin fails to verify whether the authenticated user has sufficient privileges before allowing bulk deletion of stored leads. As a result, any authenticated user with at least Subscriber-level access can invoke this function to delete all contact form leads, leading to unauthorized data loss. The vulnerability does not require user interaction and can be exploited remotely via network access to the WordPress admin interface. The impact primarily concerns data integrity, as attackers can erase valuable lead information, potentially disrupting business workflows and marketing efforts. The vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 2.3.3, with no patch currently available. No public exploits have been reported, but the ease of exploitation by low-privilege users makes this a notable risk. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 4.3, indicating medium severity, with attack vector as network, low attack complexity, requiring privileges, no user interaction, and limited impact on integrity only.

For European organizations, the primary impact is the unauthorized deletion of contact form lead data, which can disrupt sales pipelines, customer engagement, and marketing analytics. Loss of lead data may result in missed business opportunities and damage to customer relationships. Since the vulnerability requires authenticated access at Subscriber level or higher, the risk is elevated in environments where user account management is lax or where attackers can compromise low-privilege accounts. The absence of confidentiality or availability impact means that data leakage or service downtime is not expected directly from this vulnerability. However, the integrity breach can have downstream operational and reputational consequences. Organizations heavily reliant on WordPress for customer interaction and lead generation, especially SMEs and digital marketing firms, are particularly vulnerable. The lack of a patch increases exposure duration, emphasizing the need for interim controls. Given the widespread use of WordPress across Europe, the threat surface is significant, particularly in countries with high WordPress adoption and active digital economies.

1. Monitor the plugin vendor’s official channels for a security patch and apply updates immediately upon release. 2. Until a patch is available, restrict Subscriber-level and higher user roles strictly, minimizing the number of users with authenticated access. 3. Implement role-based access control (RBAC) policies to ensure only trusted users have permissions to perform bulk operations. 4. Employ WordPress security plugins that can monitor and alert on suspicious bulk deletion activities or unauthorized access attempts. 5. Regularly back up contact form lead data to enable recovery in case of deletion. 6. Conduct periodic audits of user accounts and permissions to detect and remove unnecessary or dormant accounts. 7. Harden WordPress admin access by enforcing multi-factor authentication (MFA) and IP whitelisting where feasible. 8. Consider temporarily disabling or replacing the vulnerable plugin with alternative solutions until a secure version is available.