CVE-2025-49974 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability (CWE-862) identified in UpStream, a project management plugin for WordPress. This plugin facilitates project tracking and collaboration within WordPress environments. The vulnerability affects versions up to 2.1.0 and stems from improperly configured access control mechanisms, allowing users with limited privileges to perform actions or access resources they should not be authorized for. Specifically, the flaw arises because the plugin fails to enforce proper authorization checks on certain functions or endpoints, enabling privilege escalation or unauthorized modification of project data. The CVSS 3.1 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 alter data integrity, such as modifying project details or statuses without permission. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches have been published yet. The vulnerability was publicly disclosed on June 20, 2025, by Patchstack. Given the nature of WordPress plugins and their widespread use, this vulnerability could be leveraged to undermine project management workflows, potentially leading to misinformation, unauthorized project changes, or disruption of collaboration within affected organizations.

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability can be significant, especially for those relying on WordPress-based project management tools like UpStream. Unauthorized modification of project data can lead to corrupted project timelines, misallocation of resources, or exposure of sensitive project details indirectly through altered project states. This can disrupt business operations, delay project delivery, and damage trust among stakeholders. While the vulnerability does not directly compromise confidentiality or availability, the integrity impact can cascade into operational risks and compliance issues, particularly for sectors with strict project governance requirements such as finance, healthcare, and government. Additionally, organizations using UpStream in multi-user environments may face insider threat amplification if lower-privileged users exploit this flaw to escalate privileges or sabotage projects. The medium severity score reflects a moderate risk, but the ease of exploitation (low complexity, network accessible) and lack of required user interaction increase the likelihood of exploitation once an attacker has some authenticated access. European organizations with public-facing WordPress sites or those with remote collaborators are particularly exposed.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should: 1) Immediately audit all WordPress installations for the presence of the UpStream plugin and identify versions in use. 2) Restrict plugin access strictly to trusted users and minimize the number of users with authenticated access to the WordPress backend. 3) Implement strict role-based access controls (RBAC) within WordPress and the UpStream plugin to limit permissions to only necessary users. 4) Monitor logs for unusual project modification activities that could indicate exploitation attempts. 5) Until an official patch is released, consider disabling or uninstalling the UpStream plugin if it is not critical to operations. 6) Engage with the plugin vendor or community to track patch releases and apply updates promptly once available. 7) Employ web application firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block suspicious requests targeting UpStream endpoints. 8) Educate users about the risks of privilege misuse and enforce strong authentication mechanisms to reduce the risk of compromised credentials being leveraged for exploitation.