CVE-2025-58829

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-58829 is a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability identified in the Ai Auto Tool Content Writing Assistant (Gemini Writer, ChatGPT) All in One WordPress plugin, developed by Aitool. This plugin, designed to automate content generation using AI models, is vulnerable to SSRF attacks in versions up to and including 2.3.3. The vulnerability allows an attacker to make the server send crafted requests to internal or external resources, potentially leading to information disclosure, internal network scanning, or further exploitation. The CVSS score of 4.9 (Medium) reflects the limited direct impact on confidentiality, but the SSRF nature can be a stepping stone for more severe attacks. No public exploit code or patch is currently available, making this a high-priority issue for defenders.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability affects a WordPress plugin distributed through the official WordPress plugin repository. As a WordPress ecosystem issue, it impacts site owners who have installed the plugin. The lack of a patch and the plugin's reliance on server-side HTTP requests for AI API interactions increase the supply chain risk. Organizations using this plugin should treat it as a potential backdoor for internal network reconnaissance.

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: 4.9 (Medium)
• Attack Vector: Network (AV:N) – The vulnerability can be exploited remotely.
• Attack Complexity: Low (AC:L) – No special conditions are required.
• Privileges Required: None (PR:N) – No authentication needed.
• User Interaction: None (UI:N) – No user action is required.
• Scope: Unchanged (S:U) – The vulnerable component and the impacted component are the same.
• Confidentiality Impact: Low (C:L) – Limited information disclosure is possible.
• Integrity Impact: None (I:N) – No data modification.
• Availability Impact: None (A:N) – No denial of service.

Threat Level: Medium. While the direct impact is low, SSRF can be chained with other vulnerabilities (e.g., internal service exploitation) to achieve higher impact.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The SSRF vulnerability in the Ai Auto Tool plugin arises from improper validation of user-supplied URLs when the plugin makes server-side requests to AI APIs (e.g., Gemini, ChatGPT). The plugin likely accepts a URL parameter (e.g., for fetching content or sending prompts) and uses it in a server-side HTTP request without adequate sanitization. An attacker can manipulate this parameter to target internal IP addresses (e.g., http://169.254.169.254/ for cloud metadata), localhost services, or other internal resources.

Attack Flow:

1. The attacker identifies a vulnerable endpoint in the plugin that accepts a URL parameter (e.g., /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=ai_auto_tool_fetch&url=...).
2. The attacker crafts a request with a malicious URL pointing to an internal resource (e.g., http://127.0.0.1:8080/admin).
3. The server processes the request and sends an HTTP GET to the internal resource.
4. The response is returned to the attacker, revealing sensitive information or allowing further exploitation.

Root Cause: Lack of URL validation and absence of a blocklist for private IP ranges.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no patch is available, the vulnerable code is presumed to be in the plugin's core request handling. A typical vulnerable pattern in PHP would be:

// Vulnerable code (hypothetical)
$url = $_GET['url'];
$response = wp_remote_get($url);
echo wp_remote_retrieve_body($response);

A patched version would include validation:

// Patched code (hypothetical)
$url = $_GET['url'];
if (filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL) && !is_private_ip($url)) {
    $response = wp_remote_get($url);
    echo wp_remote_retrieve_body($response);
} else {
    echo "Invalid URL";
}

The is_private_ip() function would check against RFC 1918 addresses and loopback.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team

Prerequisites:

• A WordPress instance with Ai Auto Tool plugin version <= 2.3.3.
• Knowledge of a vulnerable endpoint (e.g., admin-ajax.php with a specific action).

Exploitation Steps:

1. Identify the vulnerable endpoint by analyzing plugin source code or using fuzzing.
2. Craft a request to fetch internal metadata:

   curl "http://target.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=ai_auto_tool_fetch&url=http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/"
   

3. If successful, the response will contain cloud instance metadata.
4. For internal service discovery, try:

   curl "http://target.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=ai_auto_tool_fetch&url=http://127.0.0.1:3306"
   

Lab Setup:

• Use Docker to run a vulnerable WordPress instance:

  docker run -d -p 8080:80 --name wp-vuln wordpress:latest
  # Install Ai Auto Tool plugin manually
  

• Set up a simple internal service (e.g., a Python HTTP server on port 8081) to simulate internal resources.

Blue Team

Detection:

• Monitor for outbound HTTP requests to private IP ranges (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16, 127.0.0.0/8).
• Look for unusual URL parameters in plugin AJAX requests.
• Use the YARA and Sigma rules provided below.

Hunting:

• Search web server logs for requests containing url= parameters with IP addresses or unusual schemes.
• Check for connections to cloud metadata endpoints (e.g., 169.254.169.254).

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network IOCs:
  • Outbound HTTP requests to private IP ranges from the web server.
  • Requests to 169.254.169.254 or 127.0.0.1 from the WordPress process.
• File IOCs:
  • Modified plugin files (e.g., ai-auto-tool/main.php) containing suspicious URL handling.
• Log IOCs:
  • Web server logs showing admin-ajax.php requests with action=ai_auto_tool_fetch and url= parameters containing IP addresses.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_58829_SSRF_Detection {
    meta:
        description = "Detects SSRF attempts targeting private IPs in Ai Auto Tool plugin"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2025-58829"
    strings:
        $url_param = "url=" nocase
        $private_ip = /(127\.|10\.|172\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[01])\.|192\.168\.)/ nocase
        $cloud_metadata = "169.254.169.254" nocase
    condition:
        $url_param and ($private_ip or $cloud_metadata)
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-58829 SSRF Attempt via Ai Auto Tool
id: 8a4b3c2d-1e5f-4a7b-9c8d-0e1f2a3b4c5d
status: experimental
description: Detects SSRF attempts targeting private IPs in Ai Auto Tool plugin
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
    service: access
detection:
    selection:
        cs-uri-query|contains: 
            - "action=ai_auto_tool_fetch"
            - "url=127."
            - "url=10."
            - "url=172.16."
            - "url=172.17."
            - "url=172.18."
            - "url=172.19."
            - "url=172.20."
            - "url=172.21."
            - "url=172.22."
            - "url=172.23."
            - "url=172.24."
            - "url=172.25."
            - "url=172.26."
            - "url=172.27."
            - "url=172.28."
            - "url=172.29."
            - "url=172.30."
            - "url=172.31."
            - "url=192.168."
            - "url=169.254.169.254"
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of internal APIs (rare)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http $HOME_NET any -> $EXTERNAL_NET any (msg:"CVE-2025-58829 SSRF Attempt via Ai Auto Tool"; flow:to_server; content:"GET"; http_method; content:"admin-ajax.php"; http_uri; content:"action=ai_auto_tool_fetch"; http_uri; pcre:"/url=(127\.|10\.|172\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[01])\.|192\.168\.|169\.254\.169\.254)/Ri"; classtype:attempted-recon; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the plugin if not critical for operations.
2. Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block requests containing private IP addresses in URL parameters.
3. Restrict outbound traffic from the web server using firewall rules (e.g., allow only necessary external IPs).

Long-term Fix:

• The vendor must release a patched version that validates URLs against a whitelist of allowed domains and blocks private IP ranges.
• As a workaround, modify the plugin code to add URL validation (see patched code example above).

Monitoring:

• Enable logging for all plugin AJAX requests.
• Set up alerts for SSRF patterns using the provided detection rules.

Valters IT