CVE-2025-2101: Local File Inclusion Vulnerability in Edumall WordPress Theme

Overview

The CVE-2025-2101 is a severe cybersecurity vulnerability that primarily affects websites built on the Edumall theme for WordPress. It is crucial because it allows cybercriminals to execute arbitrary PHP code on the server, potentially leading to unauthorized access, data breaches, and even system compromise. This vulnerability affects all versions of the theme up to and including 4.2.4.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-2101
Severity: High (8.1 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Local File Inclusion via AJAX action
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Not Required
Impact: System compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

Edumall WordPress Theme | Versions up to and including 4.2.4

How the Exploit Works

The vulnerability lies in the ‘template’ parameter of the ‘edumall_lazy_load_template’ AJAX action. An unauthenticated attacker can exploit this vulnerability by including and executing arbitrary PHP files on the server. This means that any PHP code within these files can be executed, effectively bypassing access controls, obtaining sensitive data, or achieving code execution in cases where PHP files can be uploaded and included.

Conceptual Example Code

Here is a conceptual example of how this vulnerability might be exploited. In this case, an HTTP POST request is made to a vulnerable endpoint with a malicious payload.

POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=edumall_lazy_load_template HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
template=../../../wp-config.php

In this example, the attacker is trying to include the ‘wp-config.php’ file, which contains sensitive information such as database credentials.

Mitigation

The recommended mitigation strategy for this vulnerability is to apply the vendor patch as soon as it is available. If the patch is not yet available or cannot be applied immediately, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation measure. These systems can detect and block attempts to exploit this vulnerability, providing an additional layer of security for your website.