Overview
The world of cybersecurity is constantly evolving with new threats appearing every day. One such threat, identified as CVE-2025-6994, is a serious vulnerability affecting the Reveal Listing plugin by smartdatasoft for WordPress. This vulnerability has a significant impact, potentially leading to system compromise or data leakage. It is a privilege escalation vulnerability that allows unauthenticated users to assign themselves the administrator role. The severity of this vulnerability underlines the importance of robust security practices for all users and organizations that use the affected plugin.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-6994
Severity: Critical (CVSS v3.1: 9.8)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System compromise, data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Reveal Listing Plugin for WordPress | Up to and including 3.3
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability arises from the Reveal Listing plugin allowing users who are registering new accounts to set their own role by supplying the ‘listing_user_role’ field. This, in turn, makes it possible for an unauthenticated attacker to create an account with an administrator role. Once an attacker has an administrator account, they can potentially compromise the system or leak sensitive data.
Conceptual Example Code
Consider the following conceptual HTTP request that an attacker could use to exploit this vulnerability:
POST /wp-register.php HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
username=attacker&email=attacker@example.com&listing_user_role=administrator&password=attackerpasswordThis example HTTP request is a registration request for a new user account. The attacker sets the ‘listing_user_role’ field to ‘administrator’, thus creating a new user account with administrative privileges.
Mitigation and Recommendations
The recommended mitigation for this vulnerability is to apply the vendor patch. If the patch cannot be applied immediately, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation.
It is also crucial to follow best security practices such as limiting privileges wherever possible, regularly updating and patching systems, and monitoring system logs for suspicious activity.
Remember, proactive defense is the best way to keep your systems secure. Stay safe in the cyber world!