CVE-2025-67588

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-67588 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability in the Elementor Website Builder plugin for WordPress, affecting versions up to and including 3.33.0. This flaw allows an unauthenticated attacker to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels, potentially leading to unauthorized actions within the WordPress ecosystem. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 4.3 (Medium), indicating a moderate risk primarily due to low attack complexity and no required privileges. As of this report, no official patch has been released, and no public proof-of-concept (PoC) or exploit code is available.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability resides in the Elementor Website Builder plugin, a widely used component in the WordPress ecosystem. The plugin is distributed via the official WordPress plugin repository and is a critical dependency for many WordPress sites. The lack of a patch and the nature of the flaw (missing authorization) could allow attackers to manipulate site content or settings, potentially leading to further compromise. Organizations using Elementor should monitor for updates and apply them immediately upon release.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Score: 4.3 (Medium)
• Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
• Attack Vector (AV): Network – The vulnerability can be exploited remotely.
• Attack Complexity (AC): Low – No special conditions are required.
• Privileges Required (PR): None – No authentication needed.
• User Interaction (UI): None – No user action is required.
• Scope (S): Unchanged – The exploit cannot affect other components.
• Confidentiality (C): None – No data exposure.
• Integrity (I): Low – Limited ability to modify data.
• Availability (A): None – No denial-of-service impact.

Threat Level: Medium. The vulnerability is easy to exploit but has limited impact on integrity. However, in the context of a WordPress site, even low-integrity changes (e.g., modifying page content) can lead to defacement or phishing attacks.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability stems from a Missing Authorization check (CWE-862) in the Elementor Website Builder plugin. Specifically, certain AJAX actions or REST API endpoints within the plugin do not properly verify whether the requesting user has the necessary permissions (e.g., edit_posts, manage_options). This allows an unauthenticated attacker to trigger actions that should be restricted to authenticated users with specific roles.

Mechanism:

1. The plugin registers several AJAX hooks for frontend and backend operations.
2. Some of these hooks lack a current_user_can() check or similar authorization guard.
3. An attacker can craft a request (e.g., via a browser or script) to these endpoints.
4. The server processes the request without verifying the user's capabilities.
5. This could allow the attacker to modify Elementor settings, templates, or page content.

Potential Impact:

• Unauthorized modification of site content (e.g., injecting malicious scripts).
• Bypass of security controls to perform actions like creating or deleting posts.
• In worst-case scenarios, privilege escalation if combined with other vulnerabilities.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no patch is available, a hypothetical fix would involve adding authorization checks to all AJAX and REST endpoints. Below is an example of vulnerable vs. patched code.

Vulnerable Code (PHP):

add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_elementor_save_data', 'elementor_save_data_callback');
function elementor_save_data_callback() {
    // No permission check
    $data = $_POST['data'];
    update_option('elementor_data', $data);
    wp_die();
}

Patched Code (PHP):

add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_elementor_save_data', 'elementor_save_data_callback');
function elementor_save_data_callback() {
    // Add authorization check
    if (!current_user_can('edit_posts')) {
        wp_die('Unauthorized', 403);
    }
    $data = $_POST['data'];
    update_option('elementor_data', $data);
    wp_die();
}

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Exploitation)

Prerequisites:

• A WordPress site with Elementor Website Builder <= 3.33.0 installed and activated.
• Network access to the target site.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Identify vulnerable endpoints by analyzing the plugin's AJAX hooks (e.g., using browser developer tools or a proxy like Burp Suite).
2. Craft a request to a vulnerable endpoint. For example, if the endpoint is wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action elementor_save_data:

   POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php HTTP/1.1
   Host: target-site.com
   Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
   
   action=elementor_save_data&data=malicious_content
   

3. Send the request without any authentication cookies.
4. Verify the impact (e.g., check if the site content changed).

Note: No public exploit code is available. The above is a generic example based on the vulnerability description.

Blue Team (Detection & Defense)

Detection:

• Monitor for requests to admin-ajax.php or REST API endpoints with unusual action parameters.
• Look for requests from unauthenticated users to endpoints that should require authentication.
• Use Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to block requests to known vulnerable endpoints.

Defense:

• Immediately update Elementor to a patched version once available.
• If no patch is available, consider disabling the plugin temporarily or implementing a virtual patch via WAF.
• Restrict access to wp-admin and AJAX endpoints using IP whitelisting or .htaccess rules.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network IOCs:
  • Requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action parameters related to Elementor (e.g., elementor_save_data, elementor_update_template) from unauthenticated sources.
  • Unusual POST data containing HTML or JavaScript in Elementor-related actions.
• File IOCs:
  • Modified wp_options table entries containing unexpected Elementor data.
  • New or modified files in /wp-content/uploads/elementor/ or /wp-content/plugins/elementor/.
• Log IOCs:
  • WordPress debug logs showing failed authorization attempts (if logging is enabled).
  • Web server access logs with 403 errors on AJAX endpoints.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_67588_Elementor_Missing_Auth {
    meta:
        description = "Detects exploitation attempts for CVE-2025-67588 in Elementor Website Builder"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-67588"
    strings:
        $ajax_action = "action=elementor_" nocase
        $wp_ajax = "admin-ajax.php" nocase
        $post_data = "data=" nocase
    condition:
        all of them
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-67588 - Elementor Missing Authorization Exploitation
id: 8a4b3c2d-1e5f-4a7b-9c8d-0e1f2a3b4c5d
status: experimental
description: Detects unauthenticated requests to Elementor AJAX endpoints
author: Valters IT
date: 2025/04/10
references:
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-67588
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
    service: access
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'POST'
        c-uri|contains: '/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'action=elementor_'
        sc-status: 200
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate Elementor operations from authenticated users
level: medium

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2025-67588 - Elementor Missing Authorization Exploit"; flow:to_server,established; content:"POST"; http_method; content:"/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php"; http_uri; content:"action=elementor_"; http_client_body; classtype:attempted-admin; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Update Elementor: As soon as a patched version is released, update to the latest version.
2. Virtual Patching: If no patch is available, use a WAF to block requests to admin-ajax.php with action parameters starting with elementor_ from unauthenticated users.
3. Disable Plugin: If the site is critical, consider temporarily disabling the Elementor plugin until a fix is applied.

Long-term Measures:

• Implement a Content Security Policy (CSP) to mitigate potential XSS impacts.
• Regularly audit WordPress plugins for vulnerabilities.
• Use a security plugin (e.g., Wordfence) to monitor for unauthorized AJAX requests.
• Ensure all WordPress installations are kept up to date.

Valters IT Signature: This report was generated by Valters IT DevSecOps AI. For questions or further analysis, contact security@valters-it.com.