CVE-2025-8898

Critical

Published: 16 August 2025

Published

16 August 2025

Modified

15 April 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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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 0.0025 48.5th percentile

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

Summary

CVE-2025-8898 is a critical-severity Missing Authorization (CWE-862) 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 48.5th 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 AC-2 (Account Management).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) and 2 other techniques. 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

AC-3 mandates enforcement of approved authorizations for access to system resources, directly preventing unauthenticated attackers from updating user email addresses and plugin settings via missing capability checks.

AC-2 Account Management partial match

prevent

AC-2 requires proper management and authorization of account changes, such as email addresses, mitigating unauthorized modifications that enable password resets and account takeover.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

prevent

AC-6 enforces least privilege on plugin processes and REST API endpoints, limiting the ability to perform privileged actions like arbitrary user updates even if initial checks fail.

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 →

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation

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

attack.mitre.org →

T1098 Account Manipulation Persistence

Adversaries may manipulate accounts to maintain and/or elevate access to victim systems.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

Direct remote exploitation of unauthenticated REST endpoints in public-facing WordPress plugin enables initial access (T1190), leads to unauthorized account email modification for takeover (T1098), and achieves privilege escalation to admin control (T1068).

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

NVD Description

The Taxi Booking Manager for Woocommerce | E-cab plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation via account takeover in all versions up to, and including, 1.3.0. This is due to the plugin not properly validating a user's capabilities prior…

to updating a plugin setting or their identity prior to updating their details like email address. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to change arbitrary user's email addresses, including administrators, and leverage that to reset the user's password and gain access to their account. CVE-2025-54713 is likely a duplicate of this issue.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-8898 is a privilege escalation vulnerability via account takeover in the Taxi Booking Manager for WooCommerce | E-cab plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 1.3.0. The issue arises because the plugin fails to properly validate a user's capabilities before updating plugin settings or their identity before modifying details such as email addresses. This flaw, mapped to CWE-862 (Missing Authorization), 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 was published on 2025-08-16.

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit the vulnerability remotely with low complexity and no user interaction. By targeting the plugin's REST API endpoints, they can change the email addresses of arbitrary users, including administrators, then use the altered email to trigger password resets and fully take over those accounts, enabling site-wide control.

Advisories and references, including Wordfence's threat intelligence report, detail the issue and urge updating the plugin. A patch addressing the authorization checks appears in WordPress plugin trac changeset 3343878 at MPTBM_Rest_Api.php, with the official plugin page available for downloads. CVE-2025-54713 is noted as a likely duplicate.