Search & Go - Directory WordPress Theme <= 2.7 - Authentication Bypass to Privilege Escalation via Account Takeover
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.8
- Affected Theme
- Search & Go - Directory WordPress Theme
- Affected Version
<= 2.7- CVSS
- 9.8Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-288 · Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
- CVE
CVE-2025-11522
At a glance
CVE-2025-11522 is a critical-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability in the Search & Go - Directory WordPress Theme WordPress theme, affecting versions <= 2.7. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.8; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2025, reported by khanhhnahk1.
Vulnerability Overview
The Search & Go - Directory WordPress Theme theme for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass via account takeover in all versions up to, and including, 2.7. This is due to insufficient user validation in the search_and_go_elated_check_facebook_user() function This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to gain access to other user's accounts, including administrators, when Facebook login is enabled. CVE-2025-62064 is likely a duplicate of this CVE.
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 privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-288: Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
Search & Go - Directory WordPress Theme <= 2.7 carries this weakness at search_and_go_elated_check_facebook_user(), and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Authentication bypass through an alternate path means the application has a second route to a protected action that skips the checks the primary route performs.
The protection on the main path becomes irrelevant, because the attacker simply uses the route that never asks. For Search & Go - Directory WordPress Theme the fix is 2.8: builds <= 2.7 are affected, anything from 2.8 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.8, 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: Search & Go - Directory WordPress Theme 2.8 closes this, and updating the theme is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Search & Go - Directory WordPress Theme
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