Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-49386

HighRCE

Published: 06 November 2025

Published
06 November 2025
Modified
27 April 2026
KEV Added
—
Patch
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CVSS Score v3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0012 30.3th percentile
Risk Priority 18 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-49386 is a high-severity Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502) vulnerability. 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 30.3th 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 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).

Deeper analysis

CVE-2025-49386 is a Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability (CWE-502) in the Preserve Code Formatting WordPress plugin developed by Scott Reilly. The flaw allows Object Injection and affects all versions of the plugin from its initial release through 4.0.1 inclusive. It 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 potential for significant impact across confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

The vulnerability can be exploited over the network by authenticated attackers with low privileges, requiring low complexity and no user interaction. Successful exploitation enables Object Injection, which can result in high-impact outcomes such as unauthorized data access, modification, or denial of service, depending on available PHP deserialization gadgets in the environment.

Mitigation details are available in the Patchstack advisory at https://patchstack.com/database/Wordpress/Plugin/preserve-code-formatting/vulnerability/wordpress-preserve-code-formatting-plugin-4-0-1-php-object-injection-vulnerability?_s_id=cve, which documents the vulnerability in the Preserve Code Formatting plugin up to version 4.0.1.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in Scott Reilly Preserve Code Formatting preserve-code-formatting allows Object Injection.This issue affects Preserve Code Formatting: from n/a through <= 4.0.1.

CWE(s)
CWE-502

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
Why these techniques?

Deserialization of untrusted data (CWE-502) in a WordPress plugin enables unauthenticated remote exploitation of a public-facing web application.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-13770Shared CWE-502
CVE-2026-27303Shared CWE-502
CVE-2025-53586Shared CWE-502
CVE-2025-64353Shared CWE-502
CVE-2025-31047Shared CWE-502
CVE-2026-27096Shared CWE-502
CVE-2023-49886Shared CWE-502
CVE-2026-23542Shared CWE-502
CVE-2025-66631Shared CWE-502
CVE-2026-40044Shared CWE-502

Affected Assets

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match
prevent

Directly mitigates CVE-2025-49386 by requiring timely patching of the Preserve Code Formatting WordPress plugin versions through 4.0.1 to eliminate the unsafe deserialization.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match
prevent

Enforces validation of untrusted inputs to the plugin, preventing deserialization of malicious objects leading to object injection.

SI-16 Memory Protection partial match
prevent

Implements memory protections such as ASLR and DEP to mitigate code execution from PHP deserialization gadgets exploited in this vulnerability.

References