Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-54686

CriticalRCE

Published: 14 August 2025

Published
14 August 2025
Modified
23 April 2026
KEV Added
—
Patch
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CVSS Score v3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0037 59.2th percentile
Risk Priority 20 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-54686 is a critical-severity Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 40.8% 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).

Deeper analysis

CVE-2025-54686 is a Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability (CWE-502) in the Exertio WordPress theme developed by scriptsbundle. The flaw enables Object Injection and affects Exertio versions from n/a through 1.3.2.

With a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), the vulnerability is exploitable by unauthenticated remote attackers requiring low complexity and no user interaction. Successful exploitation can result in high impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Patchstack's advisory documents the issue as a PHP Object Injection vulnerability in the WordPress Exertio theme version 1.3.2.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in scriptsbundle Exertio exertio allows Object Injection.This issue affects Exertio: from n/a through <= 1.3.2.

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?

Direct remote exploitation of public-facing WordPress application via unauthenticated deserialization/object injection leading to RCE.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v18.1

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 the deserialization vulnerability by requiring timely patching of the affected Exertio WordPress theme versions up to 1.3.2.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match
prevent

Prevents object injection by validating and sanitizing untrusted input data before deserialization in the PHP-based Exertio theme.

SI-16 Memory Protection partial match
prevent

Mitigates exploitation of object injection via memory protections like non-executable memory, reducing impact of deserialized malicious objects.

References