CVE-2025-3740

School Management System for Wordpress <= 93.1.0 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Local File Inclusion to Privilege Escalation via Password Update

2025-07-17 00:00
Thái An

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.93.1 (02-07-2025)
Affected Version
<= 93.1.0
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-22 · Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
CVE
CVE-2025-3740
View all School Management System for Wordpress vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2025-3740 is a high-severity Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in the School Management System for Wordpress WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 93.1.0. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Subscriber level or above. The issue is fixed in version 1.93.1 (02-07-2025); sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2025, reported by Thái An.

Vulnerability Overview

The School Management System for Wordpress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Local File Inclusion in all versions up to, and including, 93.1.0 via the 'page' parameter. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to include and execute arbitrary files on the server, allowing the execution of any PHP code in those files. This can be used to bypass access controls, obtain sensitive data, or achieve code execution in cases where images and other “safe” file types can be uploaded and included. The Local File Inclusion exploit can be chained to include various dashboard view files in the plugin. One such chain can be leveraged to update the password of Super Administrator accounts in Multisite environments making privilege escalation possible. The vendor has updated the version numbers beginning with `1.93.1 (02-07-2025)` for the patched version. This version comes after version 93.1.0.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

School Management System for Wordpress <= 93.1.0 carries this weakness at page, and reaching it takes an account at Subscriber level or above. Path traversal happens when user-controlled text is used to build a filesystem path without being constrained to an intended directory, so sequences like ../ walk the resolved path somewhere else.

Depending on the operation, it means reading files outside the intended folder — wp-config.php being the usual target — or writing to and deleting paths the web server can touch. For School Management System for Wordpress the fix is 1.93.1 (02-07-2025): builds <= 93.1.0 are affected, anything from 1.93.1 (02-07-2025) onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.93.1 (02-07-2025), or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Subscriber access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: School Management System for Wordpress 1.93.1 (02-07-2025) closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

Related records

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