CVE-2025-28985 in Subscribe Form Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 06/06/2025
Missing Authorization vulnerability in Elastic Email Elastic Email Subscribe Form allows Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels. This issue affects Elastic Email Subscribe Form: from n/a through 1.2.2.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/06/2025
The CVE-2025-28985 vulnerability represents a critical authorization flaw within the Elastic Email Subscribe Form component that undermines fundamental access control mechanisms. This security weakness stems from improperly configured security levels that fail to validate user permissions before granting access to sensitive functionality. The vulnerability exists across all versions from the initial release through version 1.2.2, indicating a persistent configuration issue that has remained unaddressed throughout the product lifecycle. The affected component serves as a subscription interface for email services, making it a potentially attractive target for malicious actors seeking to exploit weak access controls.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability manifests as a missing authorization check that should validate whether users possess appropriate permissions to perform subscription operations. According to CWE-284, this corresponds to an inadequate access control mechanism where the system fails to properly enforce authorization policies. The flaw essentially allows any authenticated user to bypass normal access restrictions and potentially perform unauthorized subscription activities. This misconfiguration creates a pathway for privilege escalation attacks where unauthorized individuals can manipulate subscription data or gain access to restricted email list management functions.
From an operational standpoint, this vulnerability presents significant risks to organizations relying on Elastic Email's subscription services. Attackers could exploit this weakness to subscribe unauthorized users to email lists, potentially leading to spam distribution or data exfiltration scenarios. The impact extends beyond simple unauthorized access as it could enable attackers to manipulate subscription databases, modify existing user information, or even gain insights into legitimate user base composition. This vulnerability directly violates the principle of least privilege and could compromise the integrity of email marketing campaigns and user privacy protections.
The attack surface for CVE-2025-28985 aligns with several ATT&CK techniques including privilege escalation and credential access. Adversaries could leverage this weakness to establish persistent access to subscription management features, potentially using the compromised functionality to maintain long-term presence within affected systems. The vulnerability's persistence across multiple versions suggests a systemic configuration issue that requires comprehensive security auditing. Organizations should consider implementing network segmentation and monitoring for unusual subscription activity patterns to detect potential exploitation attempts. Remediation efforts must include thorough access control policy reviews and implementation of proper authorization checks. The fix should involve strengthening authentication mechanisms and ensuring that all subscription-related operations require appropriate authorization tokens or role-based access controls. Security teams should also conduct vulnerability assessments to identify similar misconfigurations in other components and establish automated monitoring for unauthorized subscription activities to prevent exploitation.