CVE-2025-5948

Critical

Published: 19 September 2025

Published

19 September 2025

Modified

15 April 2026

KEV Added

—

Patch

—

CVSS Score 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0020 41.6th percentile

Risk Priority 20 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-5948 is a critical-severity Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key (CWE-639) vulnerability in Themeforest (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 41.6th 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 SI-10 (Information Input Validation).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068) and 1 other technique. What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

prevent

Enforces approved authorizations on the claim_business AJAX action to validate user identity and prevent unauthorized business claims leading to account takeover.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

prevent

Validates inputs such as claim_id in the AJAX action to ensure they are bound to the authenticated user, blocking authorization bypass via user-controlled keys and brute-forcing.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

prevent

Limits privileges of compromised accounts to the minimum necessary, reducing the impact of privilege escalation even if account takeover occurs.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.

attack.mitre.org →

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 →

Why these techniques?

Direct unauthenticated remote exploitation of public-facing WordPress plugin for account takeover and privilege escalation to admin.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v18.1

NVD Description

The Service Finder Bookings plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation via account takeover in all versions up to, and including, 6.0. This is due to the plugin not properly validating a user's identity prior to claiming a business…

when using the claim_business AJAX action. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to login as any user including admins. Please note that subscriber privileges or brute-forcing are needed when completing the business takeover. The claim_id is needed to takeover the admin account, but brute-forcing is a practical approach to obtaining valid IDs.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-5948 is a privilege escalation vulnerability via account takeover in the Service Finder Bookings plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 6.0. The issue arises because the plugin fails to properly validate a user's identity prior to claiming a business through the claim_business AJAX action. Published on 2025-09-19, it carries 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 maps to CWE-639 (Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key).

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this flaw to log in as any user, including administrators. Completing the business takeover requires subscriber privileges or brute-forcing valid claim_ids, which the description notes as a practical approach for obtaining the necessary IDs to target admin accounts.

Mitigation details are available in related advisories, including the Wordfence threat intelligence report at https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/7eb018bc-2650-4e0d-8da9-325eac826d45?source=cve and the plugin listing on ThemeForest at https://themeforest.net/item/service-finder-service-and-business-listing-wordpress-theme/15208793.