CVE-2025-49880 is a security vulnerability classified under CWE-862, which pertains to Missing Authorization in the Emraan Cheema CubeWP Forms plugin. CubeWP Forms is a WordPress plugin designed to facilitate form creation and management on WordPress websites. The vulnerability arises due to incorrectly configured access control security levels, allowing users with limited privileges (requiring at least some level of authentication) to perform actions or access resources that should be restricted. Specifically, the flaw does not properly enforce authorization checks, enabling an authenticated user with low privileges to execute certain operations that could modify data or settings within the plugin. The vulnerability affects all versions of CubeWP Forms up to and including version 1.1.5. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 4.3 (medium severity), 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 no availability impact (A:N). This means an attacker with some level of authenticated access can exploit the vulnerability remotely without user interaction to cause limited integrity damage, such as unauthorized modification of form data or configurations. There are no known exploits in the wild at the time of publication, and no patches have been released yet. The vulnerability was publicly disclosed on June 17, 2025, shortly after being reserved on June 11, 2025. The lack of authorization checks in CubeWP Forms could be leveraged by attackers to escalate privileges within the plugin context, potentially leading to further attacks depending on the website’s configuration and the sensitivity of the data handled by the forms.

For European organizations using WordPress websites with the CubeWP Forms plugin, this vulnerability poses a moderate risk. Since the exploit requires at least some level of authenticated access, the threat is primarily from insiders or attackers who have obtained valid credentials through phishing, credential stuffing, or other means. The potential impact includes unauthorized modification of form data, which could disrupt business processes, corrupt data integrity, or manipulate user-submitted information. This could affect customer-facing forms, internal data collection, or lead to misinformation. While there is no direct impact on confidentiality or availability, the integrity compromise could undermine trust in the affected services and lead to reputational damage. Organizations in sectors relying heavily on web forms for customer interaction, such as e-commerce, public services, and healthcare, may face operational disruptions or compliance issues if form data integrity is compromised. Given the medium severity and the absence of known exploits, the immediate risk is moderate but could increase if exploit code becomes available. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of proper access control configurations in third-party plugins, which are common attack vectors in WordPress environments.

1. Immediate mitigation should focus on restricting access to CubeWP Forms administration and configuration interfaces to only highly trusted users, minimizing the number of accounts with privileges that could exploit this vulnerability. 2. Implement strict role-based access controls (RBAC) within WordPress to ensure users have only the minimum necessary permissions. 3. Monitor user activity logs for unusual modifications to forms or configurations that could indicate exploitation attempts. 4. If possible, temporarily disable or remove the CubeWP Forms plugin until a security patch is released by the vendor. 5. Employ Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block suspicious requests targeting CubeWP Forms endpoints, especially those attempting unauthorized modifications. 6. Conduct regular audits of all WordPress plugins for security updates and known vulnerabilities, prioritizing plugins that handle sensitive data or critical business functions. 7. Educate users and administrators about the risks of credential compromise and enforce strong authentication mechanisms, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), to reduce the likelihood of unauthorized access. 8. Upon vendor patch release, apply updates promptly and verify that authorization controls are correctly enforced through penetration testing or security assessments.