CVE-2025-15525 is a vulnerability classified under CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization) found in the WordPress plugin 'Ajax Load More – Infinite Scroll, Load More, & Lazy Load' developed by dcooney. This plugin facilitates dynamic content loading on WordPress sites, enhancing user experience by enabling infinite scroll and lazy loading of posts. The vulnerability exists in the parse_custom_args() function, which improperly authorizes access to certain post data. Specifically, it allows unauthenticated attackers to retrieve titles and excerpts of posts that are not publicly published, including private, draft, pending, scheduled, and trashed posts. This unauthorized data exposure occurs because the plugin fails to enforce proper permission checks before processing custom arguments that control content retrieval. The vulnerability affects all plugin versions up to and including 7.8.1. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 5.3, indicating a medium severity level. The attack vector is network-based with no privileges or user interaction required, and the scope remains unchanged as the vulnerability affects only the plugin's data exposure without impacting other components. Although no known exploits have been reported in the wild, the flaw could be leveraged to gather sensitive unpublished content, potentially aiding further targeted attacks or information leakage. The lack of patch links suggests that a fix may not yet be publicly available, underscoring the need for vigilance and interim mitigations.

For European organizations, this vulnerability primarily threatens the confidentiality of unpublished or sensitive content managed via WordPress sites using the affected plugin. Exposure of private or draft post titles and excerpts could lead to premature disclosure of strategic communications, intellectual property, or sensitive internal information. This could damage organizational reputation, violate data privacy policies, or provide adversaries with reconnaissance data for more sophisticated attacks. While the vulnerability does not affect data integrity or availability, the unauthorized data disclosure risk is significant for sectors relying heavily on content privacy, such as media, legal, financial, and governmental institutions. Additionally, organizations with compliance obligations under GDPR must consider the implications of unauthorized data exposure, even if the data is not personal information, as it may still constitute a breach of confidentiality requirements. The ease of exploitation without authentication increases the risk of automated scanning and mass data harvesting by threat actors. Consequently, European organizations with public-facing WordPress sites using this plugin are at risk, especially if they host sensitive unpublished content.

Given the absence of a publicly available patch, European organizations should implement the following specific mitigations: 1) Immediately audit WordPress sites to identify installations of the Ajax Load More plugin and determine the version in use. 2) If possible, upgrade to a patched version once available; monitor vendor announcements and security advisories closely. 3) As an interim measure, restrict access to the plugin’s AJAX endpoints via web application firewall (WAF) rules or server-level access controls to limit requests from unauthenticated users. 4) Implement strict content access controls at the WordPress level, ensuring that private and draft content cannot be retrieved via AJAX calls by unauthorized users. 5) Disable or remove the plugin on sites where it is not essential to reduce the attack surface. 6) Monitor web server logs for unusual or repeated requests targeting the plugin’s AJAX endpoints to detect potential exploitation attempts. 7) Educate site administrators about the risks and encourage regular plugin updates and security best practices. 8) Consider deploying content security policies and rate limiting to mitigate automated exploitation attempts. These targeted actions go beyond generic advice by focusing on controlling access to vulnerable plugin functionality and monitoring for exploitation.