CVE-2025-12849 Contest Gallery <= 28.0.2 - Missing Authorization
Unauthenticated attackers can inject arbitrary media attachments into galleries and manipulate metadata due to missing capability checks in the Contest Gallery plugin.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2025-12849?
CVE-2025-12849 is a medium-severity missing authorization vulnerability in contest-gallery Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe, published on 15 Nov 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
The Contest Gallery plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass in all versions up to, and including, 28.0.2. This is due to the plugin registering the `cg_check_wp_admin_upload_v10` AJAX action for both authenticated and unauthenticated users without implementing capability checks or nonce verification. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary WordPress media attachments into galleries and manipulate gallery metadata via the `cg_check_wp_admin_upload_v10` action. It does not enable an attacker to move or upload files.
Weakness: CWE-862
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-12849?
How do I fix CVE-2025-12849?
No fix has been published for CVE-2025-12849 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and check permissions on every request on the server, not only in the interface. More about Missing authorization.
Is CVE-2025-12849 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-12849 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-x9r6-jv66-hp3g.