CVE-2025-8359

Critical

Published: 06 September 2025

Published

06 September 2025

Modified

15 April 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0044 63.5th percentile

Risk Priority 20 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-8359 is a critical-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel (CWE-288) vulnerability in Themeforest (inferred from references). 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 36.5% 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 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and IA-2 (Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users)).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) and 1 other technique. What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

IA-2 Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users) good match

prevent

Requires systems to uniquely identify and authenticate users, directly mitigating the failure to verify identity prior to authentication in the AdForest theme.

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

prevent

Enforces approved authorizations for access, preventing unauthenticated attackers from logging in as administrators due to improper access enforcement.

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Identifies, reports, and corrects flaws like the authentication bypass in the AdForest theme, eliminating the vulnerability through timely remediation.

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 →

T1078 Valid Accounts Stealth

Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

Auth bypass on public-facing WordPress theme directly enables remote exploitation of the app (T1190) and unauthorized use of valid admin/user accounts (T1078).

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

NVD Description

The AdForest theme for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass in all versions up to, and including, 6.0.9. This is due to the plugin not properly verifying a user's identity prior to authenticating them. This makes it possible for unauthenticated…

attackers to log in as other users, including administrators, without access to a password.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-8359, published on 2025-09-06, is an authentication bypass vulnerability (CWE-288) affecting the AdForest theme for WordPress in all versions up to and including 6.0.9. The flaw arises because the theme fails to properly verify a user's identity prior to authenticating them, 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), indicating critical severity due to its network accessibility, low attack complexity, and lack of prerequisites.

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely without user interaction to log in as any user on the target site, including administrators, without needing a valid password. Successful exploitation grants full administrative access, enabling attackers to potentially exfiltrate data, modify site content, install malicious code, or perform other privileged actions.

Advisories and additional details are available from sources including Wordfence threat intelligence at https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/c080df50-1113-484b-80ed-09515982c585?source=cve and the AdForest theme page at https://themeforest.net/item/adforest-classified-wordpress-theme/19481695.