CVE-2025-23942
Published: 22 January 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-23942 is a critical-severity Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type (CWE-434) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 9.1 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Web Shell (T1505.003); ranked in the top 2.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
SI-2 requires timely remediation of known flaws like this arbitrary file upload vulnerability in the WP Load Gallery plugin, directly preventing exploitation by patching affected versions.
SI-10 mandates validation of information inputs such as file uploads to reject dangerous types like web shells, comprehensively addressing the unrestricted upload vulnerability.
SI-3 deploys malicious code protection mechanisms to scan for and block web shells uploaded via the vulnerable plugin's unrestricted file upload feature.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
The vulnerability is an arbitrary file upload (CWE-434) that explicitly enables uploading and installing a web shell on the WordPress server.
NVD Description
Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type vulnerability in ngocuct0912 WP Load Gallery wp-load-gallery allows Upload a Web Shell to a Web Server.This issue affects WP Load Gallery: from n/a through <= 2.1.6.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-23942 is an Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type vulnerability (CWE-434) in the WP Load Gallery plugin (wp-load-gallery) developed by ngocuct0912 for WordPress. It enables attackers to upload a web shell to the web server. The vulnerability affects all versions of the plugin from n/a through 2.1.6 and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).
Exploitation requires high privileges (PR:H), such as those held by an authenticated WordPress administrator, and can be performed over the network (AV:N) with low complexity (AC:L) and no user interaction (UI:N). Successful exploitation allows attackers to upload malicious files like web shells, resulting in high impacts across confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H) with a changed scope (S:C), potentially leading to full server compromise.
The Patchstack advisory at https://patchstack.com/database/Wordpress/Plugin/wp-load-gallery/vulnerability/wordpress-wp-load-gallery-plugin-2-1-6-arbitrary-file-upload-vulnerability?_s_id=cve provides details on this arbitrary file upload vulnerability in WP Load Gallery version 2.1.6.
Details
- CWE(s)