Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2025-15018 is a critical-severity Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key (CWE-639) vulnerability in Wordpress (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 23th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-24 (Access Control Decisions) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2025-15018 is a privilege escalation vulnerability via account takeover in the Optional Email plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 1.3.11. The issue arises because the plugin's 'random_password' filter is not restricted to registration contexts, enabling it to interfere with password reset key generation. Published on 2026-01-07, it has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and is linked to CWE-639 (Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key).
Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability by initiating a password reset and setting a known password reset key. This allows them to reset the password of any user, including administrators, thereby gaining full access to those accounts.
Advisories reference the vulnerable code in the plugin source at https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/optional-email/tags/1.3.11/optional-email.php?marks=44,51#L44, which marks lines 44 and 51, and Wordfence threat intelligence at https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/ff4243e9-cf72-40d5-bc7d-204426024a1d?source=cve for further details on the issue.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-1282
Vulnerability Data
The Optional Email plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Account Takeover in all versions up to, and including, 1.3.11. This is due to the plugin not restricting its 'random_password' filter to registration contexts, allowing the filter to…
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affect password reset key generation. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to set a known password reset key when initiating a password reset, reset the password of any user including administrators, and gain access to their accounts.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Enforcing approved authorizations on every access request structurally stops a user-controlled key from reaching another user's data.
Requiring explicit access-control decisions on each request blocks unauthorized key-driven access.
Least-privilege restrictions limit the scope of data reachable even if a key check is bypassed.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Enforcing authorization policy and least privilege directly blocks user-controlled key tampering that bypasses access checks.
Logical access controls prevent unauthorized data access that results from missing authorization checks on object references.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing can detect missing authorization checks but does not prevent the weakness in production.
Information access restriction explicitly enforces that users may only retrieve data they are authorized to see, directly addressing user-controlled key bypass.
Access control policy directly requires enforcement of authorization rules that prevent unauthorized access via manipulated keys.
Managing access rights includes ensuring users can only access their own records and not bypass authorization by altering identifiers.
Privileged access rights control restricts what data each user may access, mitigating direct object reference attacks.
Secure development lifecycle includes authorization design but does not itself implement runtime access checks.