---
id: CVE-2025-8999
title: >-
  The Sydney theme for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of
  data due to a missing capability check on the 'activate_modules' function in
  all versions up to, and including, 2.56
summary: >-
  The Sydney theme for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of
  data due to a missing capability check on the 'activate_modules' function in
  all versions up to, and including, 2.56. This makes it possible for
  authenticated a…
severity: medium
cvss: 5.3
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N'
cwe:
  - CWE-862
published: '2025-09-17'
updated: '2026-09-26'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-26T00:10:00.127'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-8999'
references:
  - url: 'https://research.cleantalk.org/cve-2025-8999/'
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/browser/sydney/2.55/inc/classes/class-sydney-modules.php#L166
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/browser/sydney/2.55/inc/modules/class-sydney-modules.php#L72
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: 'https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/288374/'
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/965582c6-a52e-4f88-81ef-b5dd761a0c23?source=cve
    label: security@wordfence.com
tags:
  - nvd
epss: 0.00281
epssPercentile: 0.18388
ingestedAt: '2026-09-26T00:22:39.927Z'
---

## Overview

The Sydney theme for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of data due to a missing capability check on the 'activate_modules' function in all versions up to, and including, 2.56. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to activate or deactivate various theme modules.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.