Pluginnaam	Felan Framework
Type of Vulnerability	Authorization Bypass
CVE Number	CVE-2025-10849
Urgentie	Laag
CVE Publish Date	2025-10-16
Source URL	CVE-2025-10849

Felan Framework (<= 1.1.4) — Missing Authorization Allows Authenticated (Subscriber+) Arbitrary Plugin Activation/Deactivation (CVE-2025-10849)

Analysis, risk assessment and mitigation guidance from the WP‑Firewall security team

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Samenvatting: A Broken Access Control vulnerability was disclosed in the Felan Framework WordPress plugin (versions up to and including 1.1.4). The plugin exposes a handler named process_plugin_actions that does not properly check user capabilities or verify nonces before performing plugin activation/deactivation. An attacker who can register or authenticate as a low‑privilege user (subscriber or similar) may be able to trigger plugin activation/deactivation actions. This could allow a malicious actor to disable security plugins, enable malicious plugins, or otherwise change plugin state — increasing risk of site compromise. The issue is fixed in Felan Framework 1.1.5 (CVE‑2025‑10849). Below we explain the mechanics, real‑world impact, detection, containment and long‑term hardening strategies, plus how WP‑Firewall protects you and what you should do right now.

Table of contents

• What happened (high level)
• A technical look (what the vulnerability looks like)
• How exploitable is this? Practical attack vectors and constraints
• Real impacts and scenarios to be concerned about
• Detection: what to look for in logs and the database
• Short-term mitigations (if you can’t immediately update)
• Recovery steps if you suspect compromise
• Hardening and longer-term defenses
• How WP‑Firewall protects your site (including how our free plan helps)
• Suggested WAF signature examples and configuration notes (high level)
• Appendix: useful WP‑CLI and SQL checks

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What happened (high level)

The plugin provided a request handler (or action) that processes plugin activation/deactivation requests but omitted critical authorization checks (capability checks such as current_user_can('activate_plugins')) and nonce verification (check_admin_referer() / wp_verify_nonce()). As a result, any authenticated user with a low privilege level — typically a Subscriber-level account — can invoke actions that should be limited to administrators and effectively change which plugins are active on the site.

The maintainers released Felan Framework version 1.1.5 to correct the issue. The vulnerability is tracked as CVE‑2025‑10849 and has a CVSS vector that resulted in a medium/low score in published assessments; however, practical risk depends heavily on whether your site allows front‑end or self-registration or otherwise has unprivileged accounts that could be abused.

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A technical look (what the vulnerability looks like)

I’ll keep the code examples conceptual and safe — enough to explain the root cause without enabling an attacker with a copy‑paste exploit.

Vulnerable pattern (pseudo-code, simplified):

<?php
function process_plugin_actions() {
    $action = isset($_REQUEST['action_type']) ? $_REQUEST['action_type'] : '';
    $plugin = isset($_REQUEST['plugin']) ? $_REQUEST['plugin'] : '';

    if ($action === 'activate') {
        activate_plugin( $plugin );
    } elseif ($action === 'deactivate') {
        deactivate_plugins( $plugin );
    }
}
add_action( 'admin_post_process_plugin_actions', 'process_plugin_actions' );
add_action( 'admin_ajax_process_plugin_actions', 'process_plugin_actions' );
?>

What’s missing:

• No capability check (e.g. current_user_can( 'activate_plugins' ))
• No nonce verification / CSRF protection (check_admin_referer() of wp_verify_nonce())
• The handler may be hooked into entry points reachable to authenticated users (admin-ajax.php or admin-post.php), making it callable by lower‑level roles that can access those endpoints.

Corrected pattern (safe approach):

<?php
function process_plugin_actions() {
    if ( ! current_user_can( 'activate_plugins' ) ) {
        wp_die( 'Insufficient privileges', 403 );
    }

    check_admin_referer( 'bulk-plugins' ); // or a dedicated nonce action

    $action = sanitize_text_field( $_REQUEST['action_type'] ?? '' );
    $plugin = sanitize_text_field( $_REQUEST['plugin'] ?? '' );

    if ( $action === 'activate' ) {
        activate_plugin( $plugin );
    } elseif ( $action === 'deactivate' ) {
        deactivate_plugins( $plugin );
    }
}
?>

Bottom line: the missing authorization and nonce checks are the root cause. That’s Broken Access Control, which maps to OWASP A05.

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How exploitable is this? Practical attack vectors and constraints

Exploitability depends on a few environmental factors:

1. User registration policy: If your site allows users to self‑register and gives them a Subscriber (or any role with login access), an attacker can simply create an account and try to use the vulnerable endpoint. Sites that do not allow registration are less at risk.
2. Visibility of the handler: If the plugin’s action is only available in the backend for logged-in users, the attacker needs to be authenticated. If it’s reachable via admin-ajax.php of admin-post.php from the front end, it is more convenient for the attacker.
3. Plugin availability on the site: The attacker’s ability to do harm depends on what plugins are installed. Activating an installed malicious or backdoored plugin is high impact. Deactivating a security or hardening plugin (firewall, security hardening) can open the site to follow‑on attacks.
4. Detection and response: If audit logging and monitoring are in place, attempts to change plugin state will be visible and can be rapidly reverted. Without detection, attackers have weeks to act.

Given these constraints, the vulnerability is practical in many WordPress setups — especially community sites, membership sites, or sites that allow comments with registration — and should be treated seriously.

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Real impacts and scenarios to be concerned about

Here are real-world scenarios demonstrating why this is more than a theoretical issue:

• An attacker creates a Subscriber account on a forum or blog that allows registration. Using the vulnerable handler they deactivate a security plugin and activate a dormant backdoor plugin (if present), enabling remote code execution.
• On a multi-site or agency-managed environment, a compromised low‑priv user destabilizes the site by deactivating caching/security/maintenance plugins, causing downtime and customer impact.
• Attackers use the ability to flip plugin state to test for other weaknesses — e.g., activate a plugin with known remote code execution weakness to chain further exploitation.
• Even when no malicious plugin exists, deactivating a monitoring plugin can blind site owners to a later intrusion.

Impact ranking (practical):

• Confidentiality: medium (if a malicious plugin enables data exfiltration)
• Integrity: medium-high (plugin changes can introduce backdoors)
• Availability: medium (disabling caching or other plugins can cause outages)
• Overall: environment dependent — can be low on a locked‑down site, but severe on community sites.

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Detection: what to look for in logs and the database

If you want to check whether someone tried to exploit this vulnerability or whether your site was modified, look for the following signals.

HTTP / Web server logs

• POST requests to:
  • /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=process_plugin_actions
  • /wp-admin/admin-post.php?action=process_plugin_actions
  • Requests that include parameters like plug-in, action_type, _wpnooit (or lacking _wpnooit)
• Example sanitized log line:
  
  2025-10-16T12:22:11Z POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=process_plugin_actions plugin=hello-dolly.php action_type=activate 200 “-” “Mozilla/5.0…”

WordPress activity and site logs

• Changes to the active_plugins option in wp_opties with suspicious timestamps. Query in the DB:

  SELECT option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_name = 'active_plugins';

• wp_opties may show serialized arrays — check for plugin names added/removed.
• Audit logs (if you have them) showing plugin activation/deactivation events by a low‑privilege username.

File system indicators

• New plugin directories added to wp-content/plugins/ (look for uploads or newly modified plugin files).
• Modified plugin timestamps not consistent with updates you performed.

User and session checks

• Unexpected user accounts or suspicious email addresses.
• Simultaneous logins or sessions for low‑privilege users around plugin change times.

WP‑CLI helpful commands

• List active plugins: wp plugin list --status=active
• Deactivate a plugin: wp plugin deactivate plugin-slug
• Show recent plugin modifications: ls -lt wp-content/plugins

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Short-term mitigations (if you cannot immediately update)

The quickest, safest action is to update Felan Framework to 1.1.5 immediately. If you are not able to update for compatibility/testing reasons, apply at least one of these temporary mitigations:

1. Restrict access to the plugin action endpoint via WAF/firewall
   • Block requests that call action=process_plugin_actions unless they originate from administrator IPs or authenticated admin sessions.
   • WP‑Firewall can create a virtual patch rule to block these requests for you (see below).
2. Add a temporary mu‑plugin that enforces capability checks

   Drop a must‑use plugin (wp-content/mu-plugins/block-felan-actions.php) containing logic that prevents unauthorized calls to the handler:

   <?php
   // mu-plugin: block-felan-actions.php
   add_action( 'admin_init', function() {
       $action = $_REQUEST['action'] ?? '';
       if ( $action === 'process_plugin_actions' ) {
           if ( ! is_user_logged_in() || ! current_user_can( 'activate_plugins' ) ) {
               // Deny the request: stop further processing safely
               wp_die( 'Unauthorized', 403 );
           }
       }
   } );
   ?>
       

   This mu‑plugin runs before regular plugins and will block calls until you can update the vulnerable plugin.

3. Disable plugin activation via capability enforcement

   If you don’t need non‑admin users to ever activate plugins, ensure only administrators have activate_plugins capability (default WP behavior). Review custom role management plugins that may have inadvertently given elevated capabilities to low‑priv roles.

4. Disable user registration or limit registration

   If your site allows open registration and doesn’t need it, temporarily disable registration (Settings → General → Membership).

5. Temporarily restrict wp‑admin area by IP

   Limit access to the wp‑admin directory using webserver rules so only trusted IP addresses can reach admin endpoints.

Note: mu‑plugin temporary fixes are a practical emergency measure — they should be replaced with the upstream patch (update to 1.1.5) as soon as possible.

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Recovery steps if you suspect compromise

1. Isolate

   If possible, put the site into maintenance mode or take a snapshot to avoid further damage.

2. Take a backup

   Full backup (files + database) before making changes, so you have an evidence snapshot.

3. List active plugins and note unexpected changes

   wp plugin list --status=active

4. Inspect any newly activated or unknown plugins

   Check the plugin folder for suspicious file names, unusual timestamps, or obfuscated PHP.

5. Deactivate and remove suspicious plugins

   Gebruik wp plugin deactivate suspicious-plugin and remove the folder if confirmed malicious.

6. Rotate credentials

   Reset passwords for all admin users and any low‑priv accounts that may have been compromised. Invalidate sessions:
   
   wp user session destroy <user-id> for known compromised accounts.

7. Look for persistence/backdoors
   • Search for suspicious PHP files under wp-inhoud and root folder, especially those named as cron jobs or with unusual base64/eval usage.
   • Check wp_opties for suspicious cron entries or rogue active_plugins manipulations.
8. Scan with multiple tools

   Run a malware scan and filesystem integrity check. WP‑Firewall’s malware scanner will identify common malicious patterns.

9. Restore from a clean backup if needed

   If cleanup is nontrivial, restore to a backup from before the compromise and patch the vulnerable plugin immediately.

10. Forensics and monitoring

    Review logs for attack vector, dates, and user accounts involved. Implement monitoring and increase logging sensitivity.

11. Post‑incident hardening

    Apply the hardening steps below and consider a security audit.

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Hardening and longer‑term defenses

Fixing one vulnerability is not enough. Treat this as a reminder to harden your WordPress deployment:

• Keep WordPress core, themes and plugins updated on a regular schedule. Use staging to validate updates before production.
• Minimize plugin count. Remove plugins you don’t actively use.
• Restrict user registration or provide stricter onboarding and verification for new users.
• Enforce least privilege: use minimal capabilities for roles. Audit any role/capability plugins for misconfigurations.
• Enable strong admin authentication:
  • Use unique admin usernames (not “admin”).
  • Enforce strong passwords.
  • Add two‑factor authentication for privileged accounts.
• Monitor and log:
  • Enable audit logging for plugin activations/deactivations and user role changes.
  • Monitor changes to wp_opties and the plugin directory.
• File integrity monitoring:
  • Monitor wp-content/plugins/ for file changes and unauthorized file creations.
• Restrict access to /wp-admin and admin-ajax endpoints via IP whitelisting when feasible.
• Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with virtual patching capability. A WAF can block abuse of known vulnerable endpoints until you can patch.
• Regularly review user accounts and remove or demote stale users.

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How WP‑Firewall protects your site

At WP‑Firewall we approach incidents like this with layered protection: prevention, detection and response.

• Managed firewall and WAF: our WAF includes virtual patching. For this specific vulnerability, WP‑Firewall can deploy a rule that inspects incoming requests for plugin activation/deactivation actions and blocks requests that are not authenticated as admin users or that lack valid nonces. This virtual patch buys you time when you can’t immediately update.
• Malware scanning and mitigation: our scanner inspects plugin directories for unexpected files, known malicious payloads and indicators of compromise; we offer automated mitigation for common findings on higher tiers.
• Audit logging and alerting: our system captures plugin activation/deactivation events and raises alerts when they are performed by non‑admin users or outside normal patterns.
• Tiered plans that match needs:
  • Basic (Free): Essential protection — managed firewall, unlimited bandwidth, core WAF, malware scanner, and mitigation of OWASP Top 10 risks. This level will block common exploit attempts and provide scanning to detect likely compromise.
  • Standard ($50/year): Adds automatic malware removal and the ability to maintain blacklists/whitelists of IPs (up to 20 entries).
  • Pro ($299/year): Adds monthly security reports, automatic virtual patching for discovered vulnerabilities, and premium add‑ons for managed support and services.

If you want immediate protection while you update the Felan Framework plugin to 1.1.5, WP‑Firewall can apply a virtual patch rule to block the specific exploitation attempts for you. The free plan already provides meaningful protection that will mitigate many classes of automated exploitation.

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Protect Your Site Instantly — Start with WP‑Firewall Free Plan

If your priority is immediate, managed protection while you update plugins, try our Basic (Free) plan. It includes managed firewall, an effective WAF, continuous malware scanning and protection against OWASP Top 10 threats — everything you need to block most automated attempts against known vulnerabilities. Start here: https://my.wp-firewall.com/buy/wp-firewall-free-plan/

Plans at a glance:

• Basic (Free) — managed firewall, unlimited bandwidth, WAF, malware scanner, OWASP Top 10 mitigation.
• Standard ($50/year) — adds automatic malware removal and up to 20 IP blacklist/whitelist rules.
• Pro ($299/year) — adds monthly security reports, automatic virtual patching, and premium managed services.

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Suggested WAF rule concepts (high level)

Below are conceptual enforcement strategies that WP‑Firewall uses when building a virtual patch; these are intentionally high‑level and safe (not copy/paste exploit triggers). If you run your own WAF (mod_security, nginx wAF, or similar), consider rules such as:

• Block or require admin authentication for requests where:
  • REQUEST_URI contains admin-ajax.php of admin-post.php En
  • REQUEST contains action=process_plugin_actions En
  • Caller is not an authenticated administrator session.
• Deny plugin activation/deactivation POSTs that either:
  • Lack a valid WP nonce header/parameter, or
  • Are performed by a user whose role does not have activate_plugins.
• Rate-limit or block repeated attempts from the same IP to call plugin management endpoints.

A simple ModSecurity style pseudo-rule (conceptual only):

SecRule REQUEST_URI "@contains admin-ajax.php" "phase:2,chain,deny,log,msg:'Block plugin action from non-admin'"
SecRule ARGS:action "@contains process_plugin_actions" "chain"
SecRule &REQUEST_HEADERS:Cookie "!@gt 0" "id:9999,deny"

WP‑Firewall designs rules like this but tuned to minimize false positives while blocking likely exploitation attempts.

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Appendix: useful WP‑CLI and SQL checks

Check active plugins (WP‑CLI):

wp plugin list --status=active

Force deactivate all plugins (use with caution):

wp plugin deactivate --all

Inspect active_plugins option (SQL):

SELECT option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_name = 'active_plugins';

Find recently modified plugin files (Linux shell):

find wp-content/plugins -type f -mtime -7 -ls
(lists files modified in the last 7 days)

Search for suspicious code patterns (quick scan):

grep -R --line-number "eval(" wp-content/plugins/
grep -R --line-number "base64_decode(" wp-content/

List users with roles and last login times (if audit plugin installed):

wp user list --fields=ID,user_login,user_email,roles,last_login

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Final recommendations (concise checklist)

1. Update Felan Framework to 1.1.5 immediately.
2. If you cannot update immediately:
   • Deploy the mu‑plugin mitigation shown above, or
   • Use WP‑Firewall (or your WAF) to apply virtual patching that blocks process_plugin_actions from non‑admin users.
3. Scan for signs of compromise (active plugins, unexpected files, logs).
4. Rotate credentials for admin accounts and review all user roles.
5. Implement hardening measures described above (2FA, limit registration, audit logging).
6. Consider Pro tier virtual patching if you need continuous protection and automated rules for new threats.

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If you need help implementing any of these mitigations or would like WP‑Firewall to deploy a virtual patch on your behalf, our security team can assist you 24/7. Remember: updating plugins is the most reliable fix, but defense in depth reduces risk during the window between disclosure and patching.