Overview
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system has identified a critical security flaw, CVE-2025-4797, in the Golo – City Travel Guide WordPress Theme. This vulnerability pertains to all versions up to and including 1.7.0. This issue poses a substantial threat to the integrity of data and systems as it allows unauthenticated attackers to escalate privileges via account takeover. As a result, they can potentially log into the system as any user, including administrators, given that they know the user’s email address.
The breach is of significant concern due to the widespread use of WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS) and the popularity of the Golo – City Travel Guide theme among travel-based businesses and bloggers. The exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to substantial data breaches and unauthorized system access, severely affecting businesses and individuals alike.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-4797
Severity: Critical (9.8)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System compromise and potential data leakage
Affected Products
Escape the Surveillance Era
Most apps won’t tell you the truth.
They’re part of the problem.
Phone numbers. Emails. Profiles. Logs.
It’s all fuel for surveillance.
Ameeba Chat gives you a way out.
- • No phone number
- • No email
- • No personal info
- • Anonymous aliases
- • End-to-end encrypted
Chat without a trace.
Product | Affected Versions
Golo – City Travel Guide WordPress Theme | <= 1.7.0 How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability in question arises from the plugin’s failure to adequately validate a user’s identity before setting an authorization cookie. This flaw allows an attacker with knowledge of a user’s email address to log in as that user, including administrators. This log-in occurs without the need for authentication, providing the attacker with potentially unrestricted access to the system.
Conceptual Example Code
Here’s a conceptual example of how this vulnerability might be exploited with a malicious HTTP request:
POST /wp-login.php HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerable-website.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
log=admin%40vulnerable-website.com&pwd=&wp-submit=Log+In&redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Fvulnerable-website.com%2Fwp-admin%2F&testcookie=1This request attempts to log in as an administrator using the email address “admin@vulnerable-website.com”. The “testcookie” parameter is used to bypass the need for a password, exploiting the vulnerability in the process.
Mitigation
The recommended mitigation strategy for this vulnerability is to apply the patch provided by the vendor. If a patch is not available or cannot be applied immediately, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation method. These systems can detect and block exploit attempts, providing a layer of protection until the vulnerability can be fully patched.