CVE-2025-13441
📋 TL;DR
The Hide Category by User Role for WooCommerce WordPress plugin has a missing authorization vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to flush the site's object cache. This can degrade website performance by clearing cached data. All WordPress sites using this plugin up to version 2.3.1 are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- Hide Category by User Role for WooCommerce WordPress plugin
⚠️ Manual Verification Required
This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.
Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).
🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.
- Review the CVE details at NVD
- Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
- Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
- Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Repeated cache flushing could cause significant performance degradation, increased server load, and potential denial of service for legitimate users.
Likely Case
Temporary performance degradation and increased server resource usage until cache rebuilds.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact if proper rate limiting and monitoring are in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Simple HTTP request to trigger admin_init hook without authentication required.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 2.3.2 or later
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Update plugin to version 2.3.2 or later via WordPress admin panel. 2. Verify update completed successfully. 3. Clear any existing cache if needed.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable vulnerable plugin
allTemporarily deactivate the plugin until patched version is available
wp plugin deactivate hide-category-by-user-role-for-woocommerce
Web Application Firewall rule
allBlock requests to admin_init hook for unauthenticated users
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement rate limiting on admin endpoints
- Monitor for unusual cache flush activity and implement alerting
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin panel for plugin version. If version is 2.3.1 or earlier, system is vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin get hide-category-by-user-role-for-woocommerce --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
Verify plugin version is 2.3.2 or later in WordPress admin panel.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Multiple wp_cache_flush() calls from unauthenticated IPs
- Unusual admin_init hook triggers
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests to WordPress admin endpoints without authentication
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND "wp_cache_flush" AND NOT user_authenticated=true🔗 References
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/hide-category-by-user-role-for-woocommerce/tags/2.3.1/admin/admin-ui-setup.php#L165
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/hide-category-by-user-role-for-woocommerce/trunk/admin/admin-ui-setup.php#L165
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=3402760%40hide-category-by-user-role-for-woocommerce&new=3402760%40hide-category-by-user-role-for-woocommerce&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b05b0f6d-ffa4-40f4-b969-1153192c52d6?source=cve
