CVE-2025-62988

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-62988 is a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability discovered in the WordPress plugin Slider Templates by Codeless, affecting versions from n/a through 1.0.3. This flaw allows an authenticated attacker with high privileges (e.g., administrator) to make the vulnerable server issue arbitrary HTTP requests to internal or external resources. The vulnerability is classified as CWE-918: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) and carries a CVSS score of 4.9 (Medium). As of this report, no official patch has been released, and no public proof-of-concept (PoC) code is available. The EPSS score is 0.0%, indicating a low probability of exploitation in the wild at this time.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability affects a WordPress plugin distributed via the official WordPress plugin repository and third-party marketplaces. Since the plugin is not managed via NPM, PyPI, Go, or Ruby, the supply chain risk is limited to the WordPress ecosystem. However, users should verify the integrity of the plugin files and monitor for updates from the vendor.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• Attack Vector (AV): Network (N) – The attack is carried out over the network.
• Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L) – No special conditions are required.
• Privileges Required (PR): High (H) – The attacker must have administrative access to the WordPress site.
• User Interaction (UI): None (N) – No user interaction is needed.
• Scope (S): Unchanged (U) – The vulnerability does not affect other components.
• Confidentiality (C): High (H) – SSRF can be used to access sensitive internal resources.
• Integrity (I): None (N) – No data modification is possible.
• Availability (A): None (N) – No denial-of-service impact.

CVSS Score: 4.9 (Medium)

Threat Level: Medium – Exploitation requires high privileges, but the impact on confidentiality can be severe if internal services are exposed.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The SSRF vulnerability in Slider Templates arises from insufficient validation of user-supplied URLs when the plugin fetches external resources (e.g., slider templates, images, or API data). The plugin likely uses a function like wp_remote_get() or curl_exec() to retrieve content from a URL provided by an authenticated user. Without proper sanitization, an attacker can manipulate the URL to point to internal IP addresses (e.g., http://127.0.0.1:8080/admin) or cloud metadata endpoints (e.g., http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/).

Attack Flow:

1. The attacker logs in as an administrator.
2. The attacker navigates to the Slider Templates settings page.
3. The attacker provides a malicious URL (e.g., http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/admin).
4. The plugin fetches the URL and displays the response, leaking sensitive data.

Root Cause: The plugin does not implement a URL allowlist or blocklist, nor does it validate that the URL points to an external resource. Additionally, it may not disable dangerous URL schemes like file:// or gopher://.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no patch is available, the following is a hypothetical comparison based on common SSRF fixes.

Vulnerable Code (slider-templates.php):

function fetch_template($url) {
    $response = wp_remote_get($url);
    if (is_wp_error($response)) {
        return false;
    }
    return wp_remote_retrieve_body($response);
}

Patched Code (Hypothetical):

function fetch_template($url) {
    // Validate URL scheme
    $allowed_schemes = array('http', 'https');
    $parsed_url = parse_url($url);
    if (!in_array($parsed_url['scheme'], $allowed_schemes)) {
        return false;
    }
    // Block internal IPs
    $host = gethostbyname($parsed_url['host']);
    if (filter_var($host, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_PRIV_RANGE | FILTER_FLAG_NO_RES_RANGE)) {
        $response = wp_remote_get($url);
        if (is_wp_error($response)) {
            return false;
        }
        return wp_remote_retrieve_body($response);
    }
    return false;
}

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team

Prerequisites:

• WordPress instance with Slider Templates <= 1.0.3 installed and activated.
• Administrative credentials.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Log in to WordPress as an administrator.
2. Navigate to Slider Templates > Settings (or similar).
3. In the "Template URL" or "Fetch URL" field, enter a malicious URL:

   http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/
   

4. Click "Save" or "Fetch" to trigger the request.
5. The response will display the AWS metadata, including IAM credentials.

Alternative Payloads:

• http://127.0.0.1:8080/admin – Access local admin panels.
• file:///etc/passwd – Read local files (if scheme is allowed).
• gopher://internal-service:6379/_*1%0d%0a$4%0d%0aping%0d%0a – Interact with Redis.

Blue Team

Detection:

• Monitor outbound HTTP requests from the WordPress server to internal IPs (e.g., 10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x, 192.168.x.x, 127.0.0.1).
• Look for requests to cloud metadata endpoints (169.254.169.254).
• Check for unusual URL schemes (file://, gopher://, dict://).

Hunting:

• Search web server logs for wp-json/slider-templates/v1/fetch or similar endpoints.
• Review WordPress admin activity logs for changes to plugin settings.

Mitigation:

• Disable the plugin until a patch is released.
• Implement a web application firewall (WAF) rule to block requests to internal IPs.
• Restrict outbound traffic from the WordPress server using network ACLs.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network IOCs:
  • Outbound HTTP requests to 169.254.169.254 (AWS metadata).
  • Outbound HTTP requests to 127.0.0.1, 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16.
  • Requests containing file://, gopher://, or dict:// schemes.
• File IOCs:
  • Modified plugin files in /wp-content/plugins/slider-templates/.
  • Suspicious entries in WordPress options table (e.g., slider_templates_url).
• Log IOCs:
  • Web server logs showing GET /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=fetch_template&url=....
  • PHP error logs with wp_remote_get() failures to internal IPs.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_62988_SSRF_Slider_Templates {
    meta:
        description = "Detects SSRF exploitation attempts against CVE-2025-62988 in Slider Templates plugin"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-62988"
    strings:
        $url_pattern = /(http|https):\/\/(127\.0\.0\.1|10\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|172\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|192\.168\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|169\.254\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3})/ nocase
        $metadata = "169.254.169.254" nocase
        $scheme_file = "file://" nocase
        $scheme_gopher = "gopher://" nocase
    condition:
        any of ($url_pattern, $metadata, $scheme_file, $scheme_gopher)
}

Sigma Rule

title: SSRF Exploitation via Slider Templates Plugin
id: 7a8b9c0d-1e2f-3a4b-5c6d-7e8f9a0b1c2d
status: experimental
description: Detects outbound HTTP requests to internal IPs from WordPress server, indicating SSRF exploitation of CVE-2025-62988.
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: web
    product: apache
    service: access_combined
detection:
    selection:
        cs-uri-query|contains:
            - 'action=fetch_template'
            - 'slider-templates'
        cs-uri-query|re: '(http|https):\/\/(127\.0\.0\.1|10\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|172\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|192\.168\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|169\.254\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3})'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of internal resources (rare)
level: high
tags:
    - attack.t1190
    - cve.2025.62988

Suricata Rule

alert http $HOME_NET any -> $EXTERNAL_NET any (msg:"CVE-2025-62988 SSRF Exploitation - Slider Templates"; flow:to_server; content:"GET"; http_method; content:"/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php"; http_uri; pcre:"/(http|https):\/\/(127\.0\.0\.1|10\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|172\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|192\.168\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|169\.254\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3})/Ri"; classtype:attempted-recon; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the plugin – Deactivate and delete the Slider Templates plugin until a patch is available.
2. Restrict outbound traffic – Use firewall rules to block outbound HTTP/HTTPS traffic to private IP ranges (RFC 1918) and cloud metadata IPs.
3. Monitor logs – Review web server and application logs for signs of exploitation.

Long-term Fixes:

• Vendor patch – Await an official update from Codeless that implements URL validation and IP blocking.
• Custom patch – If you have development resources, apply the hypothetical patch shown in the "Vulnerable vs. Patched Code" section.
• WAF rules – Deploy a WAF (e.g., ModSecurity) with rules to block SSRF attempts.

Workarounds:

• Use a reverse proxy (e.g., Nginx) to filter outbound requests.
• Implement a WordPress security plugin that monitors for SSRF.

Valters IT
Securing Digital Frontiers