VulnerabilityPublished 4 Jul 2025Updated 8 Jul 2025

CVE-2025-53485: Wikimedia Foundation Mediawiki – SecurePoll extension · Missing Authorization

Affects Wikimedia Foundation Mediawiki – SecurePoll extensionSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High · fixed in 1.44.0 : patch Wikimedia Foundation Mediawiki – SecurePoll extension soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 09:15 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 21% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 1.44.0, 1.43.0, 1.40.0

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: High
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 4 Jul 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade Wikimedia Foundation Mediawiki – SecurePoll extension to 1.44.0, 1.43.0 or 1.40.0.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Wikimedia Foundation Mediawiki - SecurePoll extension	Affected >=1.39.0 <1.40.0 >=1.42.0 <1.43.0 >=1.43.0 <1.44.0	Fixed in 1.40.0 1.43.0 1.44.0

AI-suggested

To mitigate this vulnerability, organizations should immediately upgrade the SecurePoll extension to the latest patched versions: 1.39.13 or later for the 1.39.x branch, 1.42.7 or later for the 1.42.x branch, and 1.43.2 or later for the 1.43.x branch. If upgrading is not immediately feasible, organizations should implement strict access controls at the web server or application firewall level to restrict access to the SetTranslationHandler.php endpoint to authorized election administrators only. Additionally, auditing and monitoring of translation changes related to elections should be enhanced to detect unauthorized modifications promptly. Organizations should also review and harden their MediaWiki configurations to enforce role-based access controls and validate user permissions rigorously. Finally, educating administrators about this vulnerability and encouraging prompt patch management practices will reduce exposure time.

Description

SetTranslationHandler.php does not validate that the user is an election admin, allowing any (even unauthenticated) user to change election-related translation text. While partially broken in newer MediaWiki versions, the check is still missing. This issue affects Mediawiki - SecurePoll extension: from 1.39.X before 1.39.13, from 1.42.X before 1.42.7, from 1.43.X before 1.43.2.

Impact

For European organizations, especially those involved in political processes, public administration, or civic engagement that utilize MediaWiki with the SecurePoll extension, this vulnerability poses a significant risk. The ability for unauthenticated users to modify election-related translation text could lead to misinformation, manipulation of election data, or disruption of election-related communications. This undermines the integrity of election processes and could erode public trust in democratic institutions. Additionally, organizations using MediaWiki for internal polling or decision-making processes may experience compromised data integrity, affecting governance and operational decisions. The impact is particularly critical in countries with high reliance on digital platforms for election transparency and citizen engagement. Furthermore, misinformation propagated through altered translations can have cascading effects on social stability and political discourse within European societies.

CWE-862Missing Authorization (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #4OWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
The product does not perform an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.
Architecture and Design
Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries.
Architecture and Design
Ensure that access control checks are performed related to the business logic. These checks may be different than the access control checks that are applied to more generic resources such as files, connections, processes, memory, and database records.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.3.8 (opens in a new tab)
V13.4.2 (opens in a new tab)
V7.2.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Exploitation of Thunderbolt Protection Flaws (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 14 Jul 2025, 21:17 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-862

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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