CVE-2025-4520 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting the Uncanny Automator plugin for WordPress, a popular tool used for automation, integration, webhooks, and workflow building. The vulnerability arises from a missing authorization check (CWE-862) on multiple AJAX functions within the plugin, allowing authenticated users with subscriber-level permissions or higher to modify plugin settings without proper privileges. This flaw exists in all versions up to and including 6.4.0.2. Since WordPress AJAX endpoints are commonly used for asynchronous server communication, the lack of capability checks means that low-privileged users can perform unauthorized actions, potentially altering automation workflows or integrations configured by administrators. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 5.4, reflecting a medium severity level, with the vector indicating network attack vector (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), requiring privileges (PR:L), no user interaction (UI:N), unchanged scope (S:U), no confidentiality impact (C:N), low integrity impact (I:L), and low availability impact (A:L). No public exploits are known at this time, and no patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability could be leveraged to disrupt automated processes or inject malicious workflows, potentially impacting business operations or data integrity within affected WordPress sites.

For European organizations using WordPress with the Uncanny Automator plugin, this vulnerability poses a risk of unauthorized modification of automation workflows and integrations. Such unauthorized changes could lead to disruption of business processes, data manipulation, or unintended execution of automated tasks, potentially causing operational delays or data integrity issues. Although the confidentiality impact is rated none, the integrity and availability impacts are low but non-negligible, especially for organizations relying heavily on automated workflows for critical operations. Since the exploit requires authenticated access at subscriber level or above, the threat is more significant in environments where subscriber accounts are widely available or where attackers can gain such credentials through phishing or other means. The lack of user interaction requirement increases the risk of automated exploitation once credentials are obtained. European organizations with public-facing WordPress sites or intranet portals using this plugin should be particularly vigilant, as attackers could leverage this vulnerability to alter workflows that integrate with other internal systems or external services.

To mitigate this vulnerability, organizations should immediately review user roles and permissions within their WordPress environments to minimize the number of users with subscriber-level or higher access, especially on sites using the Uncanny Automator plugin. Implement strict access controls and monitor for unusual changes in plugin settings or workflow configurations. Until an official patch is released, consider temporarily disabling the Uncanny Automator plugin or restricting its usage to trusted administrators only. Employ web application firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block suspicious AJAX requests targeting the plugin's endpoints. Additionally, enforce strong authentication mechanisms such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce the risk of credential compromise. Regularly audit logs for unauthorized changes and conduct penetration testing focused on privilege escalation and unauthorized access scenarios within WordPress. Once a patch is available, prioritize its deployment across all affected systems.