CVE-2025-0724
Published: 22 March 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-0724 is a high-severity Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502) vulnerability in Metagauss Profilegrid. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 47.3th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 CM-7 (Least Functionality) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2025-0724 is a PHP Object Injection vulnerability (CWE-502) affecting the ProfileGrid – User Profiles, Groups and Communities plugin for WordPress in all versions up to and including 5.9.4.5. The issue arises from deserialization of untrusted input in the get_user_meta_fields_html function, enabling authenticated attackers to inject a PHP Object. The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating high severity due to its network accessibility and low complexity.
Authenticated attackers with Subscriber-level access or higher can exploit this vulnerability remotely. While no known Proof-of-Presence (POP) chain exists within the vulnerable plugin itself, making it benign in isolation, the injection could be leveraged if another plugin or theme on the target site provides a POP chain. In such cases, attackers may achieve severe impacts, including deletion of arbitrary files, retrieval of sensitive data, or arbitrary code execution, depending on the specific POP chain available.
Advisories reference the vulnerable code location in the WordPress plugin trac at https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/profilegrid-user-profiles-groups-and-communities/tags/5.9.4.2/includes/class-profile-magic-html-generator.php#L259 and provide further details via Wordfence threat intelligence at https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/6bb1de69-7bc2-4785-9789-0a2d1cf35b9b?source=cve.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-7194
Vulnerability details
The ProfileGrid – User Profiles, Groups and Communities plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to PHP Object Injection in all versions up to, and including, 5.9.4.5 via deserialization of untrusted input in the get_user_meta_fields_html function. This makes it possible for authenticated…
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attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to inject a PHP Object. No known POP chain is present in the vulnerable software, which means this vulnerability has no impact unless another plugin or theme containing a POP chain is installed on the site. If a POP chain is present via an additional plugin or theme installed on the target system, it may allow the attacker to perform actions like delete arbitrary files, retrieve sensitive data, or execute code depending on the POP chain present.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Deserialization vulnerability in public-facing WordPress plugin enables remote authenticated exploitation leading to potential RCE/file ops via POP chains.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Flaw remediation directly prevents exploitation by patching the ProfileGrid plugin to fix the unsafe deserialization in get_user_meta_fields_html.
Least functionality eliminates the vulnerable ProfileGrid plugin if non-essential, comprehensively preventing object injection via this component.
Information input validation checks untrusted user meta fields before deserialization, blocking malicious PHP objects.