CVE-2025-1402 – This vulnerability in the Event Tickets and Reg... (How to Fix)

Q: What is the severity of CVE-2025-1402?

CVE-2025-1402 has a CVSS score of 5.3 (MEDIUM). This vulnerability in the Event Tickets and Registration WordPress plugin allows authenticated attackers with Contributor-level access or higher to delete arbitrary attendee tickets without proper authorization. It affects all plugin versions up to and including 5.19.1.1. The missing capability check in the 'ajax_ticket_delete' function enables unauthorized data deletion.

📋 TL;DR

This vulnerability in the Event Tickets and Registration WordPress plugin allows authenticated attackers with Contributor-level access or higher to delete arbitrary attendee tickets without proper authorization. It affects all plugin versions up to and including 5.19.1.1. The missing capability check in the 'ajax_ticket_delete' function enables unauthorized data deletion.

💻 Affected Systems

Products:

Event Tickets and Registration WordPress plugin

Versions: All versions up to and including 5.19.1.1

Operating Systems: Any OS running WordPress

Default Config Vulnerable: ⚠️ Yes

Notes: Requires WordPress installation with the vulnerable plugin and at least one user with Contributor role or higher.

📦 What is this software?

Event Tickets by Theeventscalendar

View all CVEs affecting Event Tickets →

⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact

🔴

Worst Case

Malicious contributors could delete all attendee tickets for events, causing data loss, disrupting event management, and potentially affecting business operations or customer relationships.

🟠

Likely Case

Disgruntled or compromised contributor accounts deleting specific attendee tickets, causing administrative headaches and requiring data restoration from backups.

🟢

If Mitigated

Minimal impact with proper user access controls, regular backups, and monitoring of user activities.

🌐 Internet-Facing: HIGH - WordPress sites are typically internet-facing, and the plugin is widely used for event management.

🏢 Internal Only: MEDIUM - Risk exists if attackers gain contributor access through phishing or credential theft.

🎯 Exploit Status

Public PoC: ✅ No

Weaponized: LIKELY

Unauthenticated Exploit: ✅ No

Complexity: LOW

Exploitation requires authenticated access but is straightforward once attacker has Contributor credentials. The vulnerability is publicly documented with technical details.

🛠️ Fix & Mitigation

✅ Official Fix

Patch Version: Versions after 5.19.1.1

Vendor Advisory: https://wordpress.org/plugins/event-tickets/#developers

Restart Required: No

Instructions:

1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins. 3. Find 'Event Tickets and Registration'. 4. Click 'Update Now' if available. 5. Alternatively, download latest version from WordPress plugin repository and manually update.

🔧 Temporary Workarounds

Remove Contributor Delete Capability

all

Temporarily remove ticket deletion capability from Contributor role using WordPress role management.

// Add to theme's functions.php or custom plugin:
add_action('init', 'remove_contributor_ticket_delete');
function remove_contributor_ticket_delete() {
    $role = get_role('contributor');
    if ($role) {
        $role->remove_cap('delete_tickets');
    }
}

Disable AJAX Endpoint

linux

Block access to the vulnerable AJAX endpoint via .htaccess or web server configuration.

# Add to .htaccess for Apache:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} action=ajax_ticket_delete
RewriteRule ^wp-admin/admin-ajax\.php$ - [F,L]
</IfModule>
# Nginx configuration:
location ~* ^/wp-admin/admin-ajax\.php$ {
    if ($args ~* "action=ajax_ticket_delete") {
        return 403;
    }
}

🧯 If You Can't Patch

Restrict Contributor role assignments to trusted users only
Implement regular backups of attendee data and test restoration procedures

🔍 How to Verify

Check if Vulnerable:

Check plugin version in WordPress admin → Plugins → Event Tickets and Registration. If version is 5.19.1.1 or lower, you are vulnerable.

Check Version:

wp plugin get event-tickets --field=version   # WP-CLI command

Verify Fix Applied:

After updating, verify version is higher than 5.19.1.1. Test with Contributor account that ticket deletion requires proper permissions.

📡 Detection & Monitoring

Log Indicators:

Multiple DELETE requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=ajax_ticket_delete
Unusual ticket deletion activity from Contributor accounts
Failed permission checks in WordPress debug logs

Network Indicators:

POST requests to admin-ajax.php with ticket deletion parameters from unexpected IPs
Spike in AJAX requests from contributor-level users

SIEM Query:

source="wordpress.log" AND "admin-ajax.php" AND "ajax_ticket_delete" AND (user_role="contributor" OR user_role="author" OR user_role="editor")

📊 Metadata

CVE ID: CVE-2025-1402

CVSS v3 Score: 5.3 (MEDIUM)

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

CWE: CWE-862

EPSS Score: 0.17% exploit probability (38.8th percentile)

Published: February 21, 2025

Last Updated: February 25, 2025

🔗 References

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