CVE-2025-54037

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-54037 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability in the News Kit Elementor Addons WordPress plugin by Blazethemes. This flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels, potentially leading to unauthorized data access or modification. The vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 1.3.4. As of this report, no official patch has been released, and no public proof-of-concept (PoC) code is available.

WordPress Ecosystem Context

This vulnerability is specific to the WordPress plugin ecosystem. It does not affect Apache, Nginx, or any other web server software. The issue lies within the plugin's permission checks, which fail to properly validate user capabilities before executing sensitive operations.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Score: 5.4 (Medium)
• Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
• Attack Vector: Network
• Attack Complexity: Low
• Privileges Required: None
• User Interaction: None
• Scope: Unchanged
• Confidentiality Impact: Low
• Integrity Impact: Low
• Availability Impact: None

Threat Level: Medium. The vulnerability is easily exploitable remotely without authentication, but the impact is limited to low confidentiality and integrity loss.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability resides in the news-kit-elementor-addons plugin, which extends Elementor page builder functionality. The plugin registers AJAX actions and REST endpoints that are intended for authenticated users with specific roles (e.g., editor, administrator). However, due to missing capability checks, these endpoints are accessible to unauthenticated users.

Root Cause: The plugin fails to call current_user_can() or similar WordPress authorization functions before executing sensitive operations. This allows any visitor to trigger actions such as:

• Modifying plugin settings
• Accessing or deleting stored data
• Performing actions that should require elevated privileges

Attack Vector: An attacker sends crafted HTTP requests to the vulnerable endpoints without any authentication token or session.

Prerequisites: The target site must have the vulnerable plugin installed and activated. No other conditions are required.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no patch is available, we can only analyze the vulnerable code pattern. The vulnerable code likely resembles:

// Vulnerable: No capability check
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_news_kit_save_settings', 'news_kit_save_settings');
function news_kit_save_settings() {
    // Process and save settings without checking user capabilities
    update_option('news_kit_settings', $_POST['settings']);
}

A patched version would include:

// Patched: Capability check added
add_action('wp_ajax_news_kit_save_settings', 'news_kit_save_settings');
function news_kit_save_settings() {
    if (!current_user_can('manage_options')) {
        wp_die('Unauthorized', 403);
    }
    // Process and save settings
    update_option('news_kit_settings', $_POST['settings']);
}

Note: The patched version also removes the wp_ajax_nopriv_ prefix to prevent unauthenticated access.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Offensive)

Lab Setup:

1. Install WordPress 6.x with Elementor and News Kit Elementor Addons 1.3.4.
2. Identify vulnerable endpoints using a tool like Burp Suite or by reviewing plugin source code.
3. Craft HTTP requests to exploit the missing authorization.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Enumerate vulnerable endpoints:

   curl -s "http://target/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=news_kit_get_data" | grep -oP 'action=\K[^&]+'
   

2. Exploit a settings modification endpoint:

   curl -X POST "http://target/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" \
     -d "action=news_kit_save_settings&settings[malicious]=true"
   

3. Verify unauthorized access by checking if settings were changed without authentication.

Note: No public exploit code is available; the above is a hypothetical example based on common patterns.

Blue Team (Defensive)

Detection:

• Monitor for unusual AJAX requests to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action parameters containing news_kit_.
• Look for requests without a valid X-WP-Nonce header or cookie.

Hunting:

• Search logs for POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php where the action parameter starts with news_kit_ and the HTTP_REFERER is missing or suspicious.
• Check for sudden changes to plugin options in the wp_options table.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network:

  • HTTP POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=news_kit_* parameters from unauthenticated sources.
  • Unusual User-Agent strings or missing Referer headers in such requests.

• Host:

  • Modified news_kit_settings option in the WordPress database.
  • Unexpected files in /wp-content/uploads/news-kit/ directory.
  • Plugin files with altered timestamps.

• Logs:

  • WordPress debug log entries showing wp_ajax_nopriv_news_kit_* actions being triggered.
  • Web server access logs with 200 responses to AJAX endpoints from unknown IPs.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_54037_NewsKit_Exploit {
    meta:
        description = "Detects exploitation attempts for CVE-2025-54037 in News Kit Elementor Addons"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2025-54037"
    strings:
        $ajax_action = /action=news_kit_[a-z_]+/
        $post_data = /news_kit_settings/
        $unauth_access = /wp_ajax_nopriv_news_kit_/
    condition:
        any of ($ajax_action, $post_data, $unauth_access)
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-54037 News Kit Elementor Addons Unauthorized Access
id: 8a9b7c6d-5e4f-3a2b-1c0d-9e8f7a6b5c4d
status: experimental
description: Detects unauthenticated AJAX requests targeting News Kit Elementor Addons
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
    service: access
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'POST'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'admin-ajax.php'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'action=news_kit_'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate admin actions (rare)
level: medium

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> $HOME_NET any (
    msg:"CVE-2025-54037 News Kit Elementor Addons Unauthorized AJAX Access";
    flow:to_server,established;
    content:"POST"; http_method;
    content:"admin-ajax.php"; http_uri;
    content:"action=news_kit_"; http_client_body;
    classtype:attempted-admin;
    sid:1000001;
    rev:1;
)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the plugin until a patch is released by the vendor.
2. If disabling is not possible, implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block requests to admin-ajax.php with action parameters starting with news_kit_ from unauthenticated users.
3. Restrict access to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php using .htaccess or server configuration:

   <Files "admin-ajax.php">
       Require all denied
       Require ip 127.0.0.1
   </Files>
   

Long-term Fix:

• Monitor the Blazethemes website or WordPress plugin repository for an official patch.
• Apply the patch immediately when available.
• Consider replacing the plugin with an alternative that has proper authorization checks.

Workaround:

• Add a custom capability check via a mu-plugin:

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

Valters IT
Securing Digital Frontiers