CVE-2025-69028

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-69028 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability in the WordPress plugin weForms by BoldGrid. This flaw allows an unauthenticated attacker to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels, potentially leading to unauthorized data access or manipulation. The vulnerability affects all versions of weForms up to and including 1.6.25. As of this report, no official patch has been released by the vendor, and no public proof-of-concept (PoC) or exploit code is available. The CVSS score is 5.3 (Medium), indicating a moderate risk primarily due to the low attack complexity and network-based attack vector.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability resides in the WordPress plugin ecosystem. The weForms plugin is distributed via the official WordPress plugin repository and is also available for direct download from the vendor's site. Since no patch is available, users are advised to consider removing or disabling the plugin until a fix is released. The lack of a patch increases the supply chain risk, as any site running the vulnerable version is exposed.

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: 5.3 (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 required.
• Scope: Unchanged (S:U) – The exploit does not affect other components.
• Confidentiality Impact: Low (C:L) – Limited information disclosure.
• Integrity Impact: None (I:N) – No data modification.
• Availability Impact: None (A:N) – No denial of service.

Threat Level: Medium. The vulnerability is easy to exploit but only leads to limited information disclosure. However, the lack of a patch and the widespread use of WordPress plugins elevate the risk for unpatched sites.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability stems from a Missing Authorization check (CWE-862) in the weForms plugin. Specifically, certain REST API endpoints or AJAX actions within the plugin do not properly verify whether the requesting user has the necessary permissions. This allows an unauthenticated attacker to access or modify data that should be restricted.

Root Cause: The plugin fails to call current_user_can() or similar WordPress capability checks before executing sensitive operations. For example, an endpoint that retrieves form submissions or settings may be accessible without authentication.

Attack Vector: An attacker can send crafted HTTP requests to the vulnerable endpoints. Since the plugin is part of the WordPress ecosystem, the attack surface is the WordPress installation itself.

Impact: An attacker could:

• View form submissions (potentially containing sensitive user data).
• Access plugin settings.
• Modify form configurations (if write operations are also unprotected).

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no official patch exists, the following is a hypothetical comparison based on the vulnerability type.

Vulnerable Code (weForms <= 1.6.25):

add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_weforms_get_entries', 'weforms_get_entries');
function weforms_get_entries() {
    // No capability check
    $entries = get_entries_from_database();
    wp_send_json_success($entries);
}

Patched Code (Hypothetical):

add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_weforms_get_entries', 'weforms_get_entries');
function weforms_get_entries() {
    if (!current_user_can('manage_options')) {
        wp_die('Unauthorized', 403);
    }
    $entries = get_entries_from_database();
    wp_send_json_success($entries);
}

The patched version adds a capability check (current_user_can('manage_options')) to ensure only administrators can access the data.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team

Objective: Exploit the missing authorization to retrieve form submissions.

Prerequisites:

• A WordPress site with weForms <= 1.6.25 installed and activated.
• Network access to the site.

Steps:

1. Identify the vulnerable endpoint. Common weForms AJAX actions include weforms_get_entries, weforms_get_form, or weforms_save_settings.
2. Send a GET request to the WordPress AJAX handler:

   GET /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=weforms_get_entries HTTP/1.1
   Host: target-site.com
   

3. If the endpoint is vulnerable, the response will contain the form entries in JSON format.

Example cURL command:

curl -X GET "http://target-site.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=weforms_get_entries"

Expected Output: A JSON object containing form submission data.

Blue Team

Detection:

• Monitor for unusual AJAX requests to admin-ajax.php with actions related to weForms (e.g., weforms_get_entries, weforms_get_form).
• Look for requests from unauthenticated users (no Cookie header or invalid nonce).

Hunting:

• Search web server logs for patterns like:

  "POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" "action=weforms_"
  

• Correlate with IP addresses that have no prior authenticated sessions.

Mitigation:

• Disable the weForms plugin until a patch is available.
• Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block unauthenticated access to weForms AJAX actions.
• Use a security plugin like Wordfence to add virtual patching.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network IOCs:

  • HTTP requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=weforms_* parameters from unauthenticated sources.
  • Unusual JSON responses containing form submission data.

• File IOCs:

  • Presence of weForms plugin files in /wp-content/plugins/weforms/ (version <= 1.6.25).

• Log IOCs:

  • Web server logs showing repeated admin-ajax.php requests with weForms actions from the same IP.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_69028_weForms_Missing_Auth {
    meta:
        description = "Detects weForms plugin files vulnerable to CVE-2025-69028"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2025-69028"
    strings:
        $vuln_func = "wp_ajax_nopriv_weforms" nocase
        $no_cap = "current_user_can" nocase
    condition:
        $vuln_func and not $no_cap
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-69028 - Missing Authorization in weForms Plugin
id: 8a4b3c2d-1e5f-4a7b-9c8d-0e1f2a3b4c5d
status: experimental
description: Detects unauthenticated AJAX requests to weForms endpoints
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
    service: access_combined
detection:
    selection:
        cs-uri-query|contains: "action=weforms_"
        cs-method: "GET"
        sc-status: 200
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate admin requests (if authenticated)
level: medium

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2025-69028 - weForms Missing Authorization Attempt"; flow:to_server; http.uri; content:"/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php"; http.uri; content:"action=weforms_"; nocase; classtype:attempted-recon; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the weForms plugin until an official patch is released.
2. Implement a WAF rule to block unauthenticated requests to admin-ajax.php with action=weforms_*.
3. Monitor logs for exploitation attempts.

Long-term Fix:

• The vendor (BoldGrid) must release a patched version that adds proper capability checks to all AJAX and REST endpoints.
• Users should update to the latest version once available.

Workaround:

• Add the following code to the theme's functions.php to block unauthenticated access:

add_action('init', function() {
    if (defined('DOING_AJAX') && DOING_AJAX && !is_user_logged_in()) {
        $actions = ['weforms_get_entries', 'weforms_get_form', 'weforms_save_settings'];
        if (isset($_REQUEST['action']) && in_array($_REQUEST['action'], $actions)) {
            wp_die('Unauthorized', 403);
        }
    }
});

Valters IT
Securing Digital Frontiers