Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-26966

Critical

Published: 25 February 2025

Published
25 February 2025
Modified
29 April 2026
KEV Added
—
Patch
—
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0003 8.5th percentile
Risk Priority 20 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-26966 is a critical-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel (CWE-288) vulnerability. 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 8.5th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and IA-8 (Identification and Authentication (Non-organizational Users)).

Deeper analysis

CVE-2025-26966 is an Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability (CWE-288) in the PrivateContent WordPress plugin by Aldo Latino. This issue affects all versions of PrivateContent from n/a through 8.11.5. The vulnerability 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), indicating critical severity due to its potential for high impacts across confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Unauthenticated attackers (PR:N) can exploit this vulnerability remotely over the network (AV:N) with low complexity (AC:L) and no user interaction (UI:N). Exploitation enables account takeover, allowing attackers to gain unauthorized control over user accounts within affected WordPress installations running the vulnerable plugin.

The Patchstack advisory at https://patchstack.com/database/Wordpress/Plugin/private-content/vulnerability/wordpress-privatecontent-plugin-8-11-5-unauthenticated-account-takeover-vulnerability?_s_id=cve details this unauthenticated account takeover vulnerability in PrivateContent version 8.11.5. Security practitioners should review the advisory for recommended mitigations.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability in Aldo Latino PrivateContent private-content.This issue affects PrivateContent: from n/a through <= 8.11.5.

CWE(s)
CWE-288

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1078 Valid Accounts Stealth
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.
attack.mitre.org →
Why these techniques?

Authentication bypass in public-facing WordPress plugin enables remote unauthenticated exploitation (T1190) resulting in account takeover for use of valid accounts (T1078).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-25357Shared CWE-288
CVE-2025-1061Shared CWE-288
CVE-2025-6895Shared CWE-288
CVE-2025-23504Shared CWE-288
CVE-2026-29139Shared CWE-288
CVE-2025-1564Shared CWE-288
CVE-2025-8359Shared CWE-288
CVE-2026-27389Shared CWE-288
CVE-2025-7710Shared CWE-288
CVE-2026-27049Shared CWE-288

Affected Assets

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match
prevent

Remediating known flaws in vulnerable plugins like PrivateContent directly prevents exploitation of this authentication bypass vulnerability.

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match
prevent

Enforces approved authorizations for logical access, directly countering authentication bypass via alternate paths or channels in the plugin.

IA-8 Identification and Authentication (Non-organizational Users) good match
prevent

Requires proper identification and authentication for non-organizational users, mitigating unauthenticated account takeover in public-facing WordPress plugins.

References