CVE-2025-49993

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-49993 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability in the csarturas Cookie-Script.com WordPress plugin, affecting versions up to and including 1.2.1. This flaw allows an unauthenticated attacker to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels, potentially leading to unauthorized access to sensitive data or functionality. The vulnerability is classified as Medium Severity with a CVSS score of 5.3, and as of this report, no official patch is available. The EPSS score is 0.0%, indicating low exploitation likelihood in the wild, but the risk remains for unpatched installations.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability affects a WordPress plugin distributed via the official WordPress plugin repository. Users who installed the plugin directly from the repository or via automatic updates are at risk. Since no patch is available, the supply chain risk is elevated, as users must rely on manual mitigation or removal of the plugin.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• Attack Vector (AV): Network (N) – Exploitable remotely.
• Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L) – No special conditions required.
• Privileges Required (PR): None (N) – No authentication needed.
• User Interaction (UI): None (N) – No user action required.
• Scope (S): Unchanged (U) – Impact confined to the vulnerable component.
• Confidentiality (C): Low (L) – Limited information disclosure.
• Integrity (I): None (N) – No data modification.
• Availability (A): None (N) – No denial of service.

Threat Level: Medium. The vulnerability is easy to exploit remotely without authentication, but the impact is limited to low confidentiality loss.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability resides in the Cookie-Script.com WordPress plugin, which is used to manage cookie consent banners. The plugin fails to properly enforce authorization checks on certain AJAX actions or REST API endpoints, allowing unauthenticated users to access or modify settings that should be restricted to administrators.

Root Cause: The plugin does not implement capability checks (e.g., current_user_can('manage_options')) before executing sensitive operations. This allows any visitor to trigger actions such as:

• Retrieving stored cookie consent logs.
• Modifying plugin configuration (e.g., script URLs, consent modes).
• Accessing internal plugin data that may contain user session information.

Attack Vector: An attacker sends crafted HTTP requests to the vulnerable endpoints without any authentication token or session. The plugin processes the request due to missing wp_nonce verification or user capability checks.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no official patch is available, the following is a hypothetical comparison based on common WordPress security practices.

Vulnerable Code (Example):

add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_cookie_script_get_logs', 'cookie_script_get_logs');
function cookie_script_get_logs() {
    // No capability check
    $logs = get_option('cookie_script_logs');
    wp_send_json($logs);
}

Patched Code (Hypothetical):

add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_cookie_script_get_logs', 'cookie_script_get_logs');
function cookie_script_get_logs() {
    if (!current_user_can('manage_options')) {
        wp_die('Unauthorized', 403);
    }
    $logs = get_option('cookie_script_logs');
    wp_send_json($logs);
}

The patched version adds a capability check (current_user_can('manage_options')) to ensure only administrators can access the function.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team

Prerequisites:

• Target WordPress site with Cookie-Script.com plugin <= 1.2.1.
• Network access to the site.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Identify vulnerable endpoints by analyzing the plugin's JavaScript or source code (e.g., admin-ajax.php actions).
2. Send a crafted HTTP request to the vulnerable endpoint without authentication.

Example Request (using cURL):

curl -X POST 'https://target-site.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php' \
  -d 'action=cookie_script_get_logs'

Expected Response: JSON data containing plugin logs or configuration.

Blue Team

Detection:

• Monitor for unusual admin-ajax.php requests from unauthenticated users.
• Look for requests to actions prefixed with cookie_script_ without a valid nonce.

Hunting Query (Splunk):

index=web sourcetype=access_combined
| search uri="/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" action=cookie_script_*
| eval authenticated=if(cookie="*wordpress_logged_in*", "yes", "no")
| where authenticated="no"
| stats count by src_ip, uri, action

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network IOCs:

  • HTTP POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=cookie_script_* parameters.
  • Unauthenticated access to plugin-specific REST endpoints (e.g., /wp-json/cookie-script/v1/*).

• File IOCs:

  • Plugin file: /wp-content/plugins/cookie-script-com/cookie-script-com.php
  • Suspicious log entries in wp_options table under cookie_script_logs.

• Behavioral IOCs:

  • Unexpected changes to cookie consent settings.
  • Unauthorized retrieval of user consent logs.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_49993_CookieScript_Missing_Auth {
    meta:
        description = "Detects missing authorization in Cookie-Script.com plugin"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2025-49993"
    strings:
        $func1 = "cookie_script_get_logs" ascii wide nocase
        $func2 = "cookie_script_update_config" ascii wide nocase
        $func3 = "wp_ajax_nopriv_" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        any of ($func*) and #func3 > 0
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-49993 - Missing Authorization in Cookie-Script.com Plugin
id: 8a9b7c6d-5e4f-3a2b-1c0d-9e8f7a6b5c4d
status: experimental
description: Detects unauthenticated access to Cookie-Script.com plugin AJAX actions
author: Valters IT
date: 2025/04/10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'POST'
        cs-uri-query|contains: '/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'action=cookie_script_'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate admin actions (if nonce is present)
level: medium

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2025-49993 - Cookie-Script.com Missing Authorization"; flow:to_server,established; content:"POST"; http_method; content:"/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php"; http_uri; content:"action=cookie_script_"; http_client_body; classtype:attempted-recon; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the plugin until an official patch is released.
2. Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block unauthenticated requests to admin-ajax.php with action=cookie_script_* parameters.
3. Restrict access to /wp-admin/ directory via .htaccess or IP whitelisting.

Long-term Fix:

• Monitor the plugin's official repository for a patched version (>= 1.2.2).
• Apply the vendor's update as soon as it becomes available.
• Consider replacing the plugin with an alternative that follows secure coding practices.

Workaround (if plugin must remain active):

• Add a custom function to your theme's functions.php to enforce capability checks:

add_action('init', function() {
    if (defined('DOING_AJAX') && DOING_AJAX) {
        $action = $_REQUEST['action'] ?? '';
        if (strpos($action, 'cookie_script_') === 0 && !current_user_can('manage_options')) {
            wp_die('Unauthorized', 403);
        }
    }
});

Valters IT
Securing Digital Frontiers