CVE-2025-4103 is a high-severity privilege escalation vulnerability affecting the WP-GeoMeta plugin for WordPress, specifically versions 0.3.4 and 0.3.5. The vulnerability arises from an improper authorization check (CWE-285) in the wp_ajax_wpgm_start_geojson_import() function. This function lacks a proper capability check, allowing authenticated users with as low as Subscriber-level access to invoke it and escalate their privileges to administrator level. The vulnerability is remotely exploitable over the network (AV:N), requires low attack complexity (AC:L), and only requires privileges at the low level (PR:L) but no user interaction (UI:N). The impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability is high (C:H/I:H/A:H), as an attacker gaining administrator privileges can fully control the affected WordPress site, including modifying content, installing malicious plugins, exfiltrating data, or disrupting services. Although no known exploits are currently in the wild, the vulnerability's nature and ease of exploitation make it a significant threat. The absence of a patch link suggests that a fix may not yet be publicly available, increasing the urgency for mitigation. The vulnerability was published on May 31, 2025, and assigned a CVSS 3.1 score of 8.8, reflecting its critical impact and exploitability. The root cause is a missing capability check in the AJAX handler, which should verify user permissions before processing the geojson import request. This vulnerability is particularly relevant for WordPress sites using the WP-GeoMeta plugin, which is used for geospatial metadata management and mapping features.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a serious risk, especially for those relying on WordPress sites with the WP-GeoMeta plugin installed. An attacker exploiting this flaw can gain full administrative control, leading to data breaches, defacement, or use of the compromised site as a pivot point for further attacks within the organization. This can result in loss of customer trust, regulatory penalties under GDPR due to data compromise, and operational disruptions. Organizations in sectors such as government, finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure that use WordPress for public-facing or internal portals are particularly at risk. The ease of exploitation from low-privilege accounts means that even compromised or malicious insider accounts with minimal access can escalate privileges, increasing insider threat risks. The lack of known exploits currently provides a window for proactive mitigation, but the high CVSS score indicates that once exploits emerge, attacks could be widespread and damaging.

1. Immediate mitigation should include auditing WordPress sites to identify installations of WP-GeoMeta plugin versions 0.3.4 and 0.3.5. 2. Restrict access to WordPress subscriber accounts and review user roles to minimize unnecessary accounts with even low-level access. 3. Implement web application firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block suspicious AJAX requests targeting the wp_ajax_wpgm_start_geojson_import() endpoint. 4. Monitor logs for unusual activity related to AJAX calls or privilege escalations. 5. If possible, temporarily disable the WP-GeoMeta plugin until a patch is released. 6. Engage with the plugin vendor or community to obtain or develop a patch that adds proper capability checks to the vulnerable function. 7. Harden WordPress installations by enforcing strong authentication, limiting plugin installations to trusted sources, and applying the principle of least privilege for all user accounts. 8. Prepare incident response plans specific to WordPress compromises to quickly contain and remediate any exploitation attempts.