CVE-2025-7221

GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform <= 4.5.0 - Missing Authorization to Donation Update

2025-08-20 16:38
Brian Sans-Souci (liardom)

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 4.6.1
Affected Plugin
GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform
Affected Version
<= 4.5.0
CVSS
4.3Medium
Weakness type
CWE-285 · Improper Authorization
CVE
CVE-2025-7221
View all GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2025-7221 is a medium-severity Improper Authorization vulnerability in the GiveWP WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 4.5.0. It carries a CVSS score of 4.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The root cause is a missing authorization check on a reachable function. The issue is fixed in version 4.6.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2025, reported by Brian Sans-Souci (liardom).

Vulnerability Overview

The GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of data due to a missing capability check on the give_update_payment_status() function in all versions up to, and including, 4.5.0. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with GiveWP Worker-level access and above, to update donations statuses. This ability is not present in the user interface.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no interaction from a victim user.

CWE-285: Improper Authorization

GiveWP <= 4.5.0 carries this weakness at give_update_payment_status(), and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Improper authorization means a permission check exists but does not cover the case being exercised, so a caller who is allowed to do one thing is allowed to do a neighbouring thing as well.

A lower-privileged account performs an action reserved for a higher one, which on a multi-author or membership site means an ordinary user reaching administrative behaviour. For GiveWP the fix is 4.6.1: builds <= 4.5.0 are affected, anything from 4.6.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 4.6.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: GiveWP 4.6.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-7221https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/8766608e-df72-4b9d-a301-a50c64fadc9ahttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-7221

Related records

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