CVE-2025-30846

Remediation/Mitigation Strategy for CVE-2025-30846

This document outlines the remediation and mitigation strategy for CVE-2025-30846, a PHP Local File Inclusion (LFI) vulnerability found in the Restaurant Menu by MotoPress plugin for WordPress.

1. Vulnerability Description:

  • Vulnerability: Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program (‘PHP Remote File Inclusion’ - effectively LFI in this case).
  • Affected Software: Restaurant Menu by MotoPress plugin for WordPress.
  • Affected Versions: Versions up to and including 2.4.4.
  • Description: The plugin fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input used within include or require statements in PHP code. This allows an attacker to potentially specify arbitrary files from the server’s filesystem to be included and executed. While the advisory indicates “PHP Remote File Inclusion”, this is likely a misnomer and is more accurately described as PHP Local File Inclusion (LFI) since the attacker is including files on the server, not from a remote server.

2. Severity:

  • CVSS Score: 8.8 (High)
  • CVSS Vector: Based on the provided data, the AV (Attack Vector) likely indicates a network attack (AV:N) and exploitability (exploitability score:2.8). The impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability are high (5.9 each), leading to a high severity assessment.
  • Impact: A successful exploit of this vulnerability can allow an attacker to:
    • Read sensitive files: Including configuration files (e.g., wp-config.php containing database credentials), source code, or other sensitive information stored on the server.
    • Execute arbitrary code: By including a file containing PHP code (e.g., an uploaded image with embedded PHP, or the WordPress wp-config.php file that may contain database connection information which an attacker can use to further compromise the website). This can lead to complete server compromise.

3. Known Exploit:

  • While the provided data does not explicitly state a known exploit, the high CVSS score suggests that exploitation is likely possible and may even be publicly available or actively being exploited. Given the nature of LFI vulnerabilities, creating an exploit is generally straightforward.

4. Remediation Strategy:

  • Immediate Action:
    • Update the Plugin: The most critical step is to update the Restaurant Menu by MotoPress plugin to a version higher than 2.4.4. Check the WordPress plugin repository or the MotoPress website for the latest version. This version should contain a patch addressing the LFI vulnerability.

5. Mitigation Strategy:

If updating the plugin is not immediately possible or if you want to implement additional security measures, consider the following mitigation steps:

  • Web Application Firewall (WAF) Rules:
    • Implement WAF rules to detect and block attempts to include or require files with suspicious paths.
    • Specifically, look for requests containing directory traversal sequences like ../ or absolute paths.
    • Create rules to sanitize any user supplied parameter that’s being used to determine a file path.
  • Disable allow_url_include:
    • Ensure that the allow_url_include PHP configuration directive is set to Off in your php.ini file. This will prevent the inclusion of remote files, reducing the potential attack surface. (Note: This setting helps against remote file inclusion, which is less likely in this case but good practice anyway). Restart your web server after making this change.
  • File Access Permissions:
    • Ensure that the web server user (e.g., www-data, apache) has the least necessary privileges to access files on the system. Restrict write access to sensitive directories.
  • Monitor Logs:
    • Carefully monitor web server access logs for suspicious activity, such as attempts to access unexpected files or directories. Look for requests that include common sensitive files (e.g., wp-config.php).
  • Code Review (If Possible):
    • If you have access to the plugin’s source code, perform a manual code review to identify and fix any other potential vulnerabilities, especially those related to file handling and user input sanitization. Look for places where include, require, include_once, or require_once are used with user-controlled input.
  • Security Hardening:
    • Implement general WordPress security hardening practices, such as:
      • Using strong passwords.
      • Keeping WordPress core, themes, and other plugins up to date.
      • Limiting the number of installed plugins.
      • Implementing two-factor authentication.
  • Regular Security Audits:
    • Conduct regular security audits of your WordPress installation and plugins to identify and address potential vulnerabilities.

6. Verification:

After implementing the remediation or mitigation steps, verify that the vulnerability is no longer exploitable. You can use a vulnerability scanner or manually test the vulnerability by attempting to include sensitive files using malicious requests.

7. Ongoing Monitoring:

Continue to monitor your WordPress installation for suspicious activity and keep all software up to date to prevent future vulnerabilities.

Important Considerations:

  • The provided information is based on the data from the vulnerability report. The actual impact and exploitability may vary depending on the specific environment and configuration.
  • It is crucial to test any remediation or mitigation steps in a staging environment before applying them to a production system.
  • If you are not comfortable performing these steps yourself, consider engaging a security professional to assist you.

Assigner

Date

  • Published Date: 2025-03-27 11:15:46
  • Updated Date: 2025-03-27 16:45:12

More Details

CVE-2025-30846