CVE-2025-53343 in Modernize Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 08/14/2025
Missing Authorization vulnerability in GoodLayers Modernize allows Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels. This issue affects Modernize: from n/a through 3.4.0.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/14/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-53343 represents a critical authorization flaw within the GoodLayers Modernize platform that fundamentally undermines access control security measures. This missing authorization vulnerability creates a scenario where improperly configured security levels allow unauthorized entities to exploit the system's access controls, potentially leading to privilege escalation and unauthorized data access. The affected version range spans from an unspecified starting point through version 3.4.0, indicating this weakness has persisted across multiple iterations of the software, suggesting a systemic configuration issue rather than a one-time implementation error.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from inadequate validation of user permissions and access rights within the application's security framework. When access control mechanisms fail to properly verify whether a user possesses sufficient privileges to perform specific actions, attackers can bypass intended security boundaries. This flaw operates at the core of the application's authentication and authorization architecture, where the system fails to enforce proper access control policies. The vulnerability manifests when the application does not adequately validate user credentials or roles before granting access to protected resources or functionality. Such misconfigurations create pathways for malicious actors to access restricted areas of the application that should only be available to authorized personnel with appropriate clearance levels.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, potentially enabling attackers to manipulate application data, execute privileged commands, or gain deeper system insights. An attacker exploiting this weakness could potentially move laterally within the application environment, accessing sensitive information or performing actions that should be restricted to administrators or specific user roles. The vulnerability's persistence across multiple versions suggests that organizations utilizing GoodLayers Modernize may have been exposed to risk for an extended period without detection, creating potential for significant data breaches or system compromise. This type of access control failure can result in cascading security issues where initial unauthorized access leads to broader system infiltration.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement comprehensive access control reviews and security configuration audits to identify and remediate the misconfigured authorization settings. The mitigation strategy should include enforcing proper authentication checks, implementing role-based access controls, and conducting regular security assessments to ensure access control mechanisms function as intended. Security teams must also establish monitoring procedures to detect anomalous access patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 which specifically addresses improper access control issues, and it maps to ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for credential harvesting, indicating potential attack vectors that leverage unauthorized access to expand compromise. Organizations should prioritize updating to patched versions of GoodLayers Modernize and conduct thorough penetration testing to validate that access control configurations have been properly restored.