CVE-2025-8357
📋 TL;DR
The Media Library Assistant WordPress plugin allows authenticated attackers with Author-level permissions or higher to delete arbitrary files from the /wp-content/uploads directory due to insufficient file path validation and capability checking. This affects all WordPress sites using the plugin up to version 3.27.
💻 Affected Systems
- Media Library Assistant WordPress Plugin
⚠️ Manual Verification Required
This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.
Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).
🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.
- Review the CVE details at NVD
- Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
- Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
- Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers could delete critical WordPress files, theme files, or uploaded content, potentially causing site disruption, data loss, or privilege escalation by removing security-related files.
Likely Case
Malicious authors or compromised accounts deleting uploaded media files, disrupting site content, or removing files needed for site functionality.
If Mitigated
With proper user access controls and file permission restrictions, impact is limited to authorized users deleting files they should have access to.
🎯 Exploit Status
Requires authenticated access with Author privileges or higher. Exploitation involves crafting specific requests to the vulnerable function.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Version 3.28 or later
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins. 3. Find Media Library Assistant and click 'Update Now'. 4. Verify plugin version is 3.28 or higher.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict User Roles
allTemporarily limit Author and higher role assignments to trusted users only until patching.
File Permission Restrictions
linuxSet restrictive permissions on /wp-content/uploads directory to prevent file deletion.
chmod 755 /path/to/wp-content/uploads
chown www-data:www-data /path/to/wp-content/uploads
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Disable the Media Library Assistant plugin completely
- Implement strict file system monitoring and alerting for deletion attempts in uploads directory
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin panel → Plugins → Media Library Assistant → Version. If version is 3.27 or lower, you are vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin get media-library-assistant --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
After updating, confirm plugin version shows 3.28 or higher in WordPress admin panel.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual file deletion events in /wp-content/uploads directory
- Multiple DELETE requests from Author-level users to MLA endpoints
- Failed file deletion attempts with path traversal patterns
Network Indicators:
- HTTP POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=mla_download_file containing suspicious file paths
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND "mla_download_file" AND ("DELETE" OR "unlink")🔗 References
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/media-library-assistant/tags/3.26/includes/class-mla-main.php#L924
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=3336915%40media-library-assistant&new=3336915%40media-library-assistant&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/8726375f-de67-4c92-9cf8-1bfb7330f327?source=cve
