The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-14476 affects the Doubly – Cross Domain Copy Paste for WordPress plugin developed by unitecms, impacting all versions up to and including 1.0.46. The root cause is a PHP Object Injection vulnerability stemming from unsafe deserialization of untrusted input contained within the content.txt file inside ZIP archives uploaded by users. Specifically, the plugin processes uploaded ZIP files and deserializes data from content.txt without sufficient validation or sanitization. This allows an authenticated attacker with at least Subscriber-level privileges to craft malicious serialized PHP objects that, when deserialized, trigger a POP (Property Oriented Programming) chain. This chain leverages existing code gadgets in the plugin or WordPress environment to execute arbitrary PHP code. The attacker can perform a range of malicious actions including executing arbitrary commands, deleting files, retrieving sensitive information, or other unauthorized operations depending on the environment and available gadgets. Exploitation requires that administrators have enabled subscriber-level upload permissions, which is not enabled by default but is a common configuration in some WordPress setups. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.8, reflecting its high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, combined with low attack complexity and no required user interaction beyond authentication. Although no known exploits have been reported in the wild, the vulnerability presents a significant risk due to the widespread use of WordPress and the plugin’s functionality. No official patches or updates have been linked yet, so mitigation relies on configuration changes and monitoring.

If exploited, this vulnerability can lead to full compromise of affected WordPress sites. Attackers can execute arbitrary PHP code, which may allow them to install backdoors, pivot within the network, delete critical files, or exfiltrate sensitive data such as user credentials and site configuration. This threatens the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected systems. Since the vulnerability requires only subscriber-level authentication, attackers can exploit compromised or malicious user accounts without needing administrative credentials. This significantly lowers the barrier for exploitation in environments where subscriber uploads are enabled. The impact extends beyond individual sites to potentially affect hosting providers, managed WordPress services, and any organization relying on the plugin for cross-domain copy-paste functionality. Given WordPress’s dominant market share in content management systems worldwide, the scope of affected systems is large. The lack of known exploits in the wild currently reduces immediate risk, but the ease of exploitation and high impact make this a critical vulnerability to address promptly.

1. Immediately review and restrict subscriber-level upload permissions in WordPress administrative settings, disabling this feature if not strictly necessary. 2. Implement strict input validation and sanitization for uploaded ZIP archives, especially the content.txt file, to prevent deserialization of untrusted data. 3. Monitor and audit user uploads and plugin activity logs for suspicious behavior indicative of exploitation attempts. 4. Employ Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block malicious serialized payloads targeting this vulnerability. 5. Isolate WordPress instances with this plugin in segmented network zones to limit lateral movement in case of compromise. 6. Regularly update the plugin once an official patch is released by the vendor. 7. Educate administrators about the risks of enabling subscriber uploads and encourage the principle of least privilege. 8. Consider disabling or replacing the Doubly – Cross Domain Copy Paste plugin with alternatives that do not deserialize untrusted data. 9. Conduct penetration testing focusing on deserialization vulnerabilities to identify similar risks in other plugins or custom code.