CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2019-25738 — WordPress Hybrid Composer security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8

WordPress Hybrid Composer 1.4.6 contains an unauthenticated settings change vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to modify WordPress options by exploiting the hc_ajax_save_option action. Attackers can send POST requests to the admin-ajax.php endpoint with the action parameter set to hc_ajax_save_option to enable user registration and set the default role to administrator, enabling account takeover.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.1)
Published
2026-06-04
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
php/wordpress
Weaknesses
CWE-306

Affected products

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Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

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Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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