Attack Vectors

In CVE-2025-14742, the WP Recipe Maker plugin (wp-recipe-maker) is affected by a missing authorization check in its AJAX endpoints. Specifically, the ajax_search_recipes and ajax_get_recipe functions can be accessed by authenticated users with Subscriber-level permissions (and above) in versions up to and including 10.2.3.

From a business-risk perspective, this means any user account that can log in—such as basic subscribers created for newsletters, loyalty programs, gated content, job applications, partner portals, or customer communities—could potentially be used to retrieve recipe data that should remain restricted.

Security Weakness

The root issue is missing authorization (capability) checks on sensitive AJAX functionality. Because the plugin does not properly verify whether a logged-in user is allowed to view certain content, it can expose recipe information that is marked as draft, pending, or private.

This is classified as a Medium severity issue (CVSS 4.3; CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N) because it requires an authenticated account but is otherwise low-effort to abuse and can result in unintended disclosure of non-public content.

Technical or Business Impacts

Exposure of non-public content: Draft, pending, and private recipes may be accessible to authenticated users who should not have visibility. For organizations that treat recipes as proprietary IP, this can translate into competitive leakage and loss of differentiation.

Premature disclosure of campaigns and launches: For marketing teams, unpublished recipes often align with seasonal promotions, brand partnerships, or product launches. Early exposure can undermine campaign timing, reduce PR impact, and create confusion if incomplete content is discovered externally.

Compliance and governance concerns: Even if the content is “just recipes,” internal review notes, references to suppliers, or embargoed partnership details can appear in draft materials. Unauthorized access can create policy and audit issues, especially where content approval workflows are part of compliance controls.

Operational risk amplification through low-privilege accounts: Subscriber-level access is common on WordPress sites. This increases the likelihood that a compromised low-privilege account (or a legitimate account in the wrong hands) could be used to harvest private content at scale.

Remediation: Update WP Recipe Maker to version 10.3.0 or a newer patched version as soon as possible. Track this issue under CVE-2025-14742 and consider reviewing whether Subscriber registration is necessary, as well as monitoring for unusual AJAX activity related to recipe searches and retrieval.

Source: Wordfence vulnerability advisory.