CVE-2025-7499 is a security vulnerability identified in the WordPress plugin 'BetterDocs – Advanced AI-Driven Documentation, FAQ & Knowledge Base Tool for Elementor & Gutenberg with Encyclopedia, AI Support, Instant Answers,' developed by wpdevteam. This plugin is designed to enhance WordPress sites by providing advanced documentation, FAQ, and knowledge base functionalities integrated with AI support. The vulnerability stems from a missing authorization check in the 'get_response' function across all versions up to and including 4.1.1. Specifically, the plugin fails to verify whether a user has the necessary permissions before allowing access to certain data. As a result, unauthenticated attackers can exploit this flaw to retrieve sensitive information, including passwords protecting password-protected documents and metadata associated with private and draft documents. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-862 (Missing Authorization), indicating that the system does not properly restrict access to resources. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 5.3 (medium severity), reflecting that the attack vector is network-based (AV:N), requires no privileges (PR:N), no user interaction (UI:N), and impacts confidentiality (C:L) but not integrity or availability. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches have been linked yet. This vulnerability exposes confidential content that site owners intended to restrict, potentially leading to information disclosure and privacy violations.

For European organizations using WordPress sites with the BetterDocs plugin, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to the confidentiality of sensitive internal documentation and knowledge bases. Organizations relying on password-protected documents or private/draft content for internal processes, intellectual property, or customer data risk unauthorized disclosure. This could lead to reputational damage, regulatory non-compliance (e.g., GDPR violations due to unauthorized data exposure), and potential competitive disadvantage. Since the vulnerability allows unauthenticated access over the network, attackers can exploit it remotely without needing credentials or user interaction, increasing the threat surface. While the vulnerability does not affect data integrity or availability, the exposure of confidential information alone can have serious consequences, especially for sectors handling sensitive data such as finance, healthcare, legal, and government entities within Europe.

European organizations should immediately audit their WordPress installations to identify the presence and version of the BetterDocs plugin. Until an official patch is released, practical mitigations include: 1) Temporarily disabling or uninstalling the BetterDocs plugin to eliminate exposure. 2) Restricting access to WordPress admin and plugin endpoints via web application firewalls (WAFs) or IP whitelisting to limit external access to vulnerable functions. 3) Implementing additional access controls at the web server or reverse proxy level to enforce authentication before accessing documentation URLs. 4) Monitoring web server logs for unusual access patterns targeting BetterDocs endpoints to detect potential exploitation attempts. 5) Keeping WordPress core and all plugins updated and subscribing to vendor security advisories for timely patch deployment once available. 6) Reviewing and minimizing the use of password-protected and private documents within BetterDocs to reduce sensitive data exposure. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on immediate risk reduction and detection until a vendor patch is available.