CVE-2025-8418

High

Published: 12 August 2025

Published

12 August 2025

Modified

15 April 2026

KEV Added

—

Patch

—

CVSS Score 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0061 69.7th percentile

Risk Priority 18 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-8418 is a high-severity Missing Authorization (CWE-862) vulnerability in Wordpress (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 30.3% 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 AC-6 (Least Privilege).

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

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

prevent

AC-3 enforces approved authorizations for access to system resources, directly addressing the missing capability checks that allow low-privilege users to install arbitrary plugins.

AC-6 Least Privilege good match

prevent

AC-6 applies least privilege to restrict plugin installation to only authorized high-privilege roles, preventing subscriber-level exploitation.

CM-11 User-installed Software good match

prevent

CM-11 authorizes and manages user-installed software, mitigating unauthorized plugin installations that enable potential remote code execution.

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 →

T1505.003 Web Shell Persistence

Adversaries may backdoor web servers with web shells to establish persistent access to systems.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

Vulnerability in public-facing WordPress plugin allows authenticated arbitrary plugin installation, directly enabling exploitation of the web app (T1190) and deployment of web shells for execution/persistence (T1505.003).

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

NVD Description

The B Slider- Gutenberg Slider Block for WP plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary Plugin Installation in all versions up to, and including, 1.1.30. This is due to missing capability checks on the activated_plugin function. This makes it possible…

for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to install arbitrary plugins on the server which can make remote code execution possible.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-8418 is an arbitrary plugin installation vulnerability in the B Slider - Gutenberg Slider Block for WP plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 1.1.30. The issue stems from missing capability checks in the activated_plugin function, as classified under CWE-862: Missing Authorization. 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) and was published on 2025-08-12.

Authenticated attackers with subscriber-level access or higher can exploit this vulnerability over the network with low complexity and no user interaction required. By leveraging the flawed function, they can install arbitrary plugins on the server, which may enable remote code execution depending on the plugins chosen.

Advisories and references, including Wordfence threat intelligence, detail the vulnerability at https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/deffd646-5117-4086-bf4b-8a17ffdaad8b?source=cve. The vulnerable code appears in adminMenu.php at line 124 of tag 1.1.28 (https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/b-slider/tags/1.1.28/adminMenu.php#L124), with a fix applied in changeset 3342079 to the trunk version (https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3342079/b-slider/trunk/adminMenu.php).