# CVE-2025-13403: Missing authorization in Employee Spotlight – Team Member Showcase & Meet the Team Plugin

> Authenticated subscribers can modify tracking settings due to missing authorization checks in the Employee Spotlight WordPress plugin.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 13 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 8 Apr 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-mf2h-xr3m-x8jf

## What is CVE-2025-13403?

CVE-2025-13403 is a medium-severity missing authorization vulnerability in emarket-design Employee Spotlight – Team Member Showcase & Meet the Team Plugin, published on 13 Dec 2025. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The Employee Spotlight – Team Member Showcase & Meet the Team Plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized tracking settings modification due to missing authorization validation on the employee_spotlight_check_optin() function in all versions up to, and including, 5.1.3. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to enable or disable tracking settings.

Weakness: CWE-862 (Missing Authorization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-13403?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-13403?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-13403 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-13403 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-13403 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-13403 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-13403 is a medium-severity missing authorization vulnerability in emarket-design Employee Spotlight – Team Member Showcase & Meet the Team Plugin, published on 13 Dec 2025. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-13403 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: emarket-design Employee Spotlight – Team Member Showcase & Meet the Team Plugin. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-13403/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-13403/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-13403
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-13403
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-13403

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-13403/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.