CVE-2025-2594
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in the User Registration & Membership WordPress plugin allows attackers to authenticate as any user, including administrators, by exploiting an AJAX action when the Membership Addon is enabled. All WordPress sites running vulnerable versions of this plugin with the Membership Addon active are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- User Registration & Membership WordPress plugin
📦 What is this software?
User Registration \& Membership by Wpeverest
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete site takeover with administrative privileges, allowing data theft, defacement, malware injection, and lateral movement to other systems.
Likely Case
Administrative account compromise leading to unauthorized content changes, plugin/theme installation, and user data exposure.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if strong network controls, WAF rules, and monitoring prevent exploitation attempts.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires only the target user ID and knowledge of the vulnerable AJAX endpoint.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 4.1.3
Vendor Advisory: https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/1c1be47a-d5c0-4ac1-b9fd-475b382a7d8f/
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins. 3. Find 'User Registration & Membership' plugin. 4. Click 'Update Now' if update is available. 5. Alternatively, download version 4.1.3+ from WordPress repository and manually update.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable Membership Addon
allTemporarily disable the Membership Addon component to prevent exploitation.
Restrict AJAX Access
linuxUse web application firewall or .htaccess rules to restrict access to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php for unauthorized IPs.
# Example .htaccess rule for specific IPs
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from 192.168.1.0/24
Allow from 10.0.0.0/8
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Disable the User Registration & Membership plugin entirely until patched.
- Implement strict network segmentation and monitor for authentication anomalies.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin panel > Plugins > Installed Plugins for User Registration & Membership version. If version is below 4.1.3 and Membership Addon is active, the site is vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin list --name='User Registration & Membership' --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm plugin version is 4.1.3 or higher in WordPress admin panel and test authentication functionality.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual authentication attempts via admin-ajax.php
- Multiple failed login attempts followed by successful login from same IP
- User ID parameter manipulation in AJAX requests
Network Indicators:
- POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action parameter related to user registration/membership
- Unusual spikes in admin-ajax.php traffic
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND (uri_path="/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" AND (http_method="POST" AND (param_action="*membership*" OR param_action="*user*")))