CVE-2025-8595 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting the Zakra WordPress theme developed by ThemeGrill, specifically in all versions up to and including 4.1.5. The vulnerability arises from a missing authorization check in the welcome_notice_import_handler() function. This function is responsible for importing demo settings into the theme. Due to the lack of proper capability verification, any authenticated user with Subscriber-level privileges or higher can trigger this function to import demo content without further authorization. This constitutes a CWE-862 (Missing Authorization) weakness, where the system fails to enforce proper access controls on sensitive operations. The vulnerability does not require user interaction beyond authentication and can be exploited remotely over the network (AV:N), with low attack complexity (AC:L). The CVSS 3.1 base score is 4.3, reflecting a medium impact primarily on integrity, as attackers can modify theme settings by importing demo data, potentially altering site appearance or behavior. Confidentiality and availability are not directly impacted. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability affects a widely used WordPress theme, which is popular for its flexibility and ease of use in website design. Since Subscriber-level users are often the lowest authenticated role on WordPress sites, this vulnerability broadens the attack surface to include relatively low-privileged users who might otherwise have limited capabilities.

For European organizations using WordPress websites with the Zakra theme, this vulnerability could allow low-privileged authenticated users to alter site configurations by importing demo settings. This could lead to unauthorized changes in website appearance, content layout, or functionality, potentially damaging brand reputation or user trust. While it does not directly expose sensitive data or cause denial of service, unauthorized modifications could be leveraged as a foothold for further attacks, such as injecting malicious content or redirecting users to phishing sites. Organizations with multi-user WordPress environments, such as content management teams or customer portals, are particularly at risk if Subscriber-level accounts are not tightly controlled. The impact is more pronounced for public-facing websites where unauthorized content changes can have reputational and operational consequences. Additionally, compliance with European data protection regulations (e.g., GDPR) could be indirectly affected if unauthorized changes lead to data exposure or misrepresentation of privacy policies.

1. Immediate mitigation involves restricting Subscriber-level user capabilities to prevent unauthorized access to theme functions. This can be done by hardening user role permissions using WordPress role management plugins or custom code to limit access to theme import functions. 2. Monitor and audit user activities related to theme settings and imports to detect suspicious actions promptly. 3. Apply principle of least privilege by reviewing and minimizing the number of users with Subscriber or higher roles, especially on critical sites. 4. Implement web application firewalls (WAFs) with rules to detect and block unauthorized POST requests targeting the welcome_notice_import_handler endpoint or similar theme import functions. 5. Stay updated with ThemeGrill’s security advisories and apply patches promptly once available. 6. Consider temporarily disabling or replacing the Zakra theme with a secure alternative if immediate patching is not possible. 7. Educate site administrators and content managers about the risks of low-privileged user exploitation and enforce strong authentication mechanisms to reduce risk of account compromise.