Overview
CVE-2025-7711 is a medium severity vulnerability affecting the The Classified Listing – Classified ads & Business Directory Plugin for WordPress, versions up to and including 5.0.3. This vulnerability allows authenticated attackers, even with Subscriber-level access, to execute arbitrary shortcodes. This can potentially lead to a range of malicious activities, including site defacement, data theft, or even complete site takeover.
Technical Details
The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of user-supplied input before it is processed by the do_shortcode function. Specifically, the plugin allows users to trigger an action that doesn’t properly sanitize a value before passing it to do_shortcode. An attacker can craft a malicious shortcode and inject it through a vulnerable parameter. Because subscriber-level access is sufficient, the attack surface is relatively large. The vulnerable code resides within the FilterHooks.php file, specifically around line 367 as highlighted in the references.
CVSS Analysis
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) score for CVE-2025-7711 is 5.4 (Medium).
- Attack Vector: Network (AV:N)
- Attack Complexity: Low (AC:L)
- Privileges Required: Low (PR:L)
- User Interaction: None (UI:N)
- Scope: Changed (S:C)
- Confidentiality Impact: Low (C:L)
- Integrity Impact: Low (I:L)
- Availability Impact: None (A:N)
Possible Impact
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could have several negative consequences:
- Site Defacement: Attackers could inject malicious content, altering the appearance of your website.
- Data Theft: Sensitive data stored on your website could be accessed.
- Malware Distribution: The website could be used to distribute malware to visitors.
- Complete Site Takeover: In some cases, attackers may be able to gain administrative access to the website.
Mitigation and Patch Steps
The most effective way to mitigate this vulnerability is to update the Classified Listing plugin to the latest version, which contains a fix for CVE-2025-7711. If an update is not yet available, consider temporarily disabling the plugin until a patch is released. Additional hardening steps include using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with shortcode filtering capabilities.
- Update the Plugin: Navigate to the Plugins section in your WordPress dashboard and update the “Classified Listing” plugin to the latest version (greater than 5.0.3).
- Disable the Plugin (If Necessary): If an update isn’t available, temporarily disable the plugin.
- Monitor for Updates: Keep an eye on the plugin developer’s website and the WordPress plugin repository for future security updates.
