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February 25, 2025
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How to Fix CVE-2025-0180: Critical Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in WP Foodbakery WordPress Plugin?
The WP Foodbakery plugin for WordPress has a critical vulnerability that could allow attackers to gain administrative access to affected websites. This vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-0180, stems from improper privilege management during user registration. This article provides a technical overview of the vulnerability, its potential impact, and detailed instructions on how security professionals can remediate it to protect WordPress sites. This information is crucial for DevSecOps, application security, product security, vulnerability management and assessment, penetration testing and red teams, security operations and engineering teams.
A Short Introduction to WP Foodbakery WordPress Plugin
WP Foodbakery is a popular WordPress plugin that provides a drag-and-drop page builder, primarily used to create restaurant and food-related websites. It allows users to easily design and customize various aspects of their website, including menus, booking forms, and other essential features. The plugin is designed to be user-friendly, enabling individuals with limited coding knowledge to create professional-looking websites. However, vulnerabilities in such plugins can have severe consequences, as they can be exploited to compromise the entire website.
Summary of CVE-2025-0180
CVE ID: CVE-2025-0180
Description: Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in WP Foodbakery plugin allows unauthenticated attackers to register as administrators.
CVSS Score: 9.8 (Critical)
CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
The WP Foodbakery plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in versions up to and including 3.3. This vulnerability arises because the plugin doesn't properly restrict which user meta can be updated during profile registration. Consequently, unauthenticated attackers can register on the site and manipulate user roles to grant themselves administrative privileges. The lack of proper validation and sanitization of user-supplied data during the registration process is the root cause of this flaw. You can get more info at Wordfence.
Impact of CVE-2025-0180
The impact of CVE-2025-0180 is significant, as it allows unauthenticated attackers to gain administrative access to WordPress sites using the affected plugin. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability grants the attacker complete control over the website. This control enables them to modify content, inject malicious scripts, install rogue plugins, access sensitive user data, and potentially compromise the entire web server.
With administrative privileges, attackers can:
Modify or delete website content, including posts, pages, and media.
Install malicious plugins to further compromise the website or inject malware into visitors' browsers.
Access and exfiltrate sensitive user data, such as usernames, passwords, email addresses, and other personal information.
Modify the website's configuration to redirect traffic to malicious sites or conduct phishing attacks.
Potentially gain access to the underlying server, leading to a full system compromise.
This vulnerability severely compromises the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected WordPress site, making it a critical security concern.
Products Affected by CVE-2025-0180
The following product is affected by this vulnerability:
|
Product
|
Version(s) Affected
|
|---|---|
|
WP Foodbakery Plugin
|
All versions up to and including 3.3
|
There are no explicitly mentioned non-affected products. Any versions of WP Foodbakery greater than 3.3 are likely patched.
How to Check Your Product is Vulnerable?
To determine if your WordPress site is vulnerable to CVE-2025-0180, follow these steps:
Check the Plugin Version: Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard. Navigate to the "Plugins" section and locate the WP Foodbakery plugin. Check the version number. If the version is 3.3 or earlier, your site is vulnerable.
User Registration Analysis: Analyze the user registration process. Examine the plugin's code (if possible) or monitor network traffic during registration to see if user meta fields related to roles or capabilities are being directly modified without proper validation.
Monitor User Roles: Regularly monitor the user roles on your WordPress site, especially after new user registrations. Look for unexpected administrator accounts or accounts with elevated privileges.
Security Audits: Perform regular security audits of your WordPress site, including code reviews of plugins and themes, to identify potential vulnerabilities. Automated vulnerability scanners can also help detect known issues.
Web Application Firewall (WAF) Rules: Review your WAF logs for suspicious activity related to user registration. Look for attempts to modify user roles or capabilities during the registration process. Pay attention to any requests targeting the WP Foodbakery plugin with potentially malicious payloads.
How to Fix the Vulnerability?
The primary remediation strategy for CVE-2025-0180 is to update the WP Foodbakery plugin to a version newer than 3.3. If an update is not immediately available, the following mitigation steps can be taken:
Update to the Latest Version: Upgrade the WP Foodbakery plugin to the latest available version. Check the WordPress plugin repository or the plugin developer's website for updates. This is the most effective way to address the vulnerability.
Disable the Plugin: If an update is not immediately available, consider temporarily disabling the WP Foodbakery plugin until a secure version is released. This will prevent attackers from exploiting the vulnerability.
Implement Strong User Authentication and Access Control Measures: Enforce strong password policies for all user accounts. Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for administrative accounts to add an extra layer of security. You can read about authentication bypass.
Monitor User Accounts and Activities: Regularly monitor user accounts, especially those with administrative privileges, for any suspicious activities. Look for unauthorized access attempts, unexpected changes to user roles, and unusual behavior.
Web Application Firewall (WAF): Implement a web application firewall (WAF) to help detect and block potential exploitation attempts. Configure the WAF to filter out requests that attempt to manipulate user roles or capabilities during the registration process.
Keep WordPress Core, Themes, and Other Plugins Up-to-Date: Ensure that your WordPress core, themes, and all other plugins are up-to-date. This will minimize the overall attack surface and reduce the risk of other vulnerabilities being exploited.
Monitor Official Channels: Monitor official channels, such as the WordPress plugin repository, security blogs, and the plugin developer's website, for any security updates or patches related to this vulnerability. Apply these updates as soon as they become available.
By implementing these mitigation steps, you can significantly reduce the risk posed by CVE-2025-0180 and protect your WordPress site from being exploited. It's essential to stay informed about security vulnerabilities and proactively address them to maintain a secure online presence.
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Arun KL
Arun KL is a cybersecurity professional with 15+ years of experience in IT infrastructure, cloud security, vulnerability management, Penetration Testing, security operations, and incident response. He is adept at designing and implementing robust security solutions to safeguard systems and data. Arun holds multiple industry certifications including CCNA, CCNA Security, RHCE, CEH, and AWS Security.
