CVE-2025-14618
📋 TL;DR
The Sweet Energy Efficiency WordPress plugin has an authorization vulnerability that allows authenticated users (even with low-privilege subscriber accounts) to read, modify, and delete arbitrary graphs. This affects all WordPress sites using plugin versions 1.0.6 and earlier. The vulnerability exists in the AJAX handler that lacks proper capability checks.
💻 Affected Systems
- Sweet Energy Efficiency 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
Attackers could delete all energy efficiency graphs, modify data to misrepresent energy savings, or exfiltrate sensitive energy consumption data, potentially causing operational disruption and data integrity issues.
Likely Case
Low-privilege users or compromised subscriber accounts manipulating graph data to alter energy efficiency reporting, potentially affecting business decisions based on that data.
If Mitigated
With proper access controls and monitoring, impact is limited to data manipulation within the plugin's graph functionality only.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated access but only subscriber-level privileges. The vulnerability is simple to exploit once authenticated.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 1.0.7
Vendor Advisory: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3420909/sweet-energy-efficiency
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins. 3. Find Sweet Energy Efficiency plugin. 4. Click 'Update Now' if update is available. 5. Alternatively, download version 1.0.7+ from WordPress plugin repository and manually update.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable Plugin
allTemporarily deactivate the Sweet Energy Efficiency plugin until patched
wp plugin deactivate sweet-energy-efficiency
Restrict User Registration
allDisable new user registration to prevent attackers from creating subscriber accounts
Settings → General → Membership: Uncheck 'Anyone can register'
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict access controls and monitor user activity on the WordPress site
- Remove subscriber role permissions or implement additional authentication layers for plugin functionality
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin → Plugins → Installed Plugins → Sweet Energy Efficiency → Version. If version is 1.0.6 or lower, you are vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin get sweet-energy-efficiency --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
After updating, verify plugin version shows 1.0.7 or higher in WordPress admin panel.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual AJAX requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=sweet_energy_efficiency_action from low-privilege users
- Multiple graph modification/deletion events from non-admin users
Network Indicators:
- POST requests to admin-ajax.php with sweet_energy_efficiency_action parameter from unexpected IPs
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND ("admin-ajax.php" AND "sweet_energy_efficiency_action") AND user_role="subscriber"