CVE-2025-32299

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-32299 is a medium-severity information disclosure vulnerability affecting the QuickCal - Appointment Booking Calendar for WordPress plugin, developed by Themovation. The flaw allows an unauthenticated attacker to retrieve embedded sensitive data from the plugin's configuration or database, exposing system information to an unauthorized control sphere. This is a WordPress ecosystem issue, not related to Apache or Nginx.

The vulnerability exists in versions up to and including 1.0.15. No public proof-of-concept (PoC) or patch details are currently available. The CVSS score is 4.3 (Medium), and the EPSS score is 0.0%, indicating low exploitation likelihood at this time. However, the exposure of sensitive data could aid in further attacks.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This is a WordPress plugin, not an NPM, PyPI, Go, or Ruby package. No supply chain package security concerns apply.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
• Base Score: 4.3 (Medium)
• Attack Vector: Network (AV:N) – exploitable remotely.
• Attack Complexity: Low (AC:L) – no special conditions required.
• Privileges Required: None (PR:N) – unauthenticated access.
• User Interaction: None (UI:N) – no user action needed.
• Scope: Unchanged (S:U) – impact confined to the vulnerable component.
• Confidentiality Impact: Low (C:L) – limited sensitive data exposure.
• Integrity Impact: None (I:N) – no data modification.
• Availability Impact: None (A:N) – no service disruption.

Threat Level: Medium. While the direct impact is limited to information disclosure, the exposed data could be leveraged for privilege escalation or lateral movement.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability resides in the QuickCal plugin's handling of embedded sensitive data, likely within AJAX endpoints or REST API routes that fail to enforce proper authorization. The plugin may expose configuration details, database credentials, API keys, or user data through unauthenticated requests.

Root Cause: The plugin does not validate user permissions before returning sensitive system information. This could be due to missing capability checks in WordPress action hooks or REST API callbacks.

Attack Vector: An attacker sends a crafted HTTP request to a vulnerable endpoint (e.g., /wp-json/quickcal/v1/config or an AJAX action) without authentication. The server responds with embedded sensitive data.

Impact: The attacker gains insight into the WordPress environment, potentially including database credentials, secret keys, or other configuration values. This information can be used to compromise the site further.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

No patched version is available. The vulnerable code likely resembles:

// Vulnerable: No permission check
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_quickcal_get_config', 'quickcal_get_config');
function quickcal_get_config() {
    $config = get_option('quickcal_settings');
    wp_send_json($config);
}

A patched version would include a capability check:

// Patched: Requires admin privileges
add_action('wp_ajax_quickcal_get_config', 'quickcal_get_config');
function quickcal_get_config() {
    if (!current_user_can('manage_options')) {
        wp_die('Unauthorized', 403);
    }
    $config = get_option('quickcal_settings');
    wp_send_json($config);
}

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team

Lab Setup:

1. Install WordPress 6.x with QuickCal plugin version 1.0.15.
2. Ensure the plugin is active and configured with some test data.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Identify vulnerable endpoints using a WordPress scanner (e.g., WPScan).
2. Send an unauthenticated GET request to the endpoint:

   curl -v "http://target/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=quickcal_get_config"
   

3. If the endpoint returns sensitive data (e.g., database credentials, API keys), the vulnerability is confirmed.

Expected Output:

{
  "db_host": "localhost",
  "db_user": "root",
  "db_password": "secret",
  "api_key": "sk-xxxx"
}

Blue Team

Detection:

• Monitor for unusual requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with unknown or suspicious action parameters.
• Look for responses containing sensitive keywords like db_password, api_key, or secret.

Hunting:

• Search logs for requests to admin-ajax.php where the action parameter is not a standard WordPress action.
• Use the following Splunk query:

  index=web sourcetype=access_combined uri_path="/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" | search action=quickcal_*
  

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• URL Patterns:
  • /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=quickcal_get_config
  • /wp-json/quickcal/v1/config
• Response Patterns:
  • JSON containing db_host, db_user, db_password, api_key, secret_key
• File Hashes:
  • quickcal.php (plugin main file) – SHA256: UNKNOWN (version-specific)
• Network Indicators:
  • Outbound connections from the WordPress server to attacker-controlled IPs (if data exfiltration occurs)

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_32299_QuickCal_InfoDisclosure {
    meta:
        description = "Detects QuickCal plugin files vulnerable to CVE-2025-32299"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-01"
        reference = "CVE-2025-32299"
    strings:
        $vuln_func = "wp_ajax_nopriv_quickcal" ascii wide nocase
        $sensitive_data = "get_option('quickcal_settings')" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        $vuln_func and $sensitive_data
}

Sigma Rule

title: QuickCal Plugin Information Disclosure Attempt
id: 8a9b7c6d-5e4f-3a2b-1c0d-9e8f7a6b5c4d
status: experimental
description: Detects attempts to exploit CVE-2025-32299 in QuickCal plugin
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-01
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'GET'
        c-uri|contains: '/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'action=quickcal_'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate plugin admin actions (rare)
level: medium

Suricata Rule

alert http $HOME_NET any -> $EXTERNAL_NET any (
    msg:"CVE-2025-32299 QuickCal Information Disclosure Attempt";
    flow:to_server,established;
    content:"/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php";
    http_uri;
    content:"action=quickcal_";
    http_uri;
    classtype:attempted-recon;
    sid:10000001;
    rev:1;
)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the plugin until a patch is released.
2. Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block requests to admin-ajax.php with action parameters starting with quickcal_ from unauthenticated users.
3. Review server logs for any signs of exploitation.

Long-term Fix:

• The vendor (Themovation) must release a patched version that adds proper capability checks to all AJAX and REST endpoints.
• Apply the principle of least privilege: ensure all data retrieval functions require appropriate user permissions.

Workaround:

• Add the following code to the theme's functions.php to block unauthenticated access:

  add_action('init', function() {
      if (defined('DOING_AJAX') && DOING_AJAX && !is_user_logged_in()) {
          $action = $_REQUEST['action'] ?? '';
          if (strpos($action, 'quickcal_') === 0) {
              wp_die('Unauthorized', 403);
          }
      }
  });
  

Valters IT
Securing Digital Frontiers