Overview
CVE-2025-12634 is a medium severity vulnerability affecting the Refund Request for WooCommerce plugin for WordPress, versions up to and including 1.0. This vulnerability allows authenticated attackers with Subscriber-level access or higher to modify refund statuses without proper authorization. Specifically, they can approve or reject refund requests, potentially leading to financial discrepancies and abuse.
Technical Details
The vulnerability stems from a missing capability check within the update_refund_status function of the plugin. Normally, only users with specific capabilities (e.g., shop manager, administrator) should be able to modify refund statuses. However, due to the missing check, any authenticated user, even a Subscriber, can directly call this function. This can be achieved by crafting a malicious request to the WordPress AJAX endpoint associated with the plugin. The plugin fails to verify if the user has the appropriate permissions before executing the status update.
CVSS Analysis
The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 score of 4.3. The CVSS vector is AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N.
- Attack Vector (AV): Network (N)
- Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L)
- Privileges Required (PR): Low (L)
- User Interaction (UI): None (N)
- Scope (S): Unchanged (U)
- Confidentiality Impact (C): None (N)
- Integrity Impact (I): Low (L)
- Availability Impact (A): None (N)
While the impact on confidentiality and availability is none, the potential for unauthorized modification of data (integrity impact) is present, leading to the medium severity rating.
Possible Impact
Exploitation of this vulnerability can have several negative consequences:
- Unauthorized Refund Approvals: Attackers could approve fraudulent refund requests, leading to financial losses for the store owner.
- Unauthorized Refund Rejections: Attackers could reject legitimate refund requests, damaging customer trust and potentially leading to disputes.
- Reputational Damage: News of the vulnerability could damage the reputation of the store and the plugin developer.
- Internal Auditing Issues: Incorrect or manipulated refund data can create problems with accounting and auditing processes.
Mitigation or Patch Steps
The most important step is to update the Refund Request for WooCommerce plugin to the latest version as soon as a patch is released by the plugin developer. If a patch is not yet available, consider the following temporary mitigations:
- Disable the Plugin: As a temporary measure, disable the Refund Request for WooCommerce plugin until a patch is available. This will prevent any potential exploitation of the vulnerability.
- Restrict User Roles: Carefully review the user roles and capabilities on your WordPress site. Ensure that only trusted users have administrative or shop manager privileges. If possible, limit Subscriber access or remove the plugin until an update.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF): Employ a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to monitor and block suspicious requests to the
update_refund_statusfunction. Configure the WAF to identify and block requests originating from users without the necessary capabilities.
References
- WooCommerce Plugin Page: Refund Request for WooCommerce
- Wordfence Threat Intelligence: Wordfence Vulnerability Report
