CVE-2025-22701: Traveler Layout Essential SSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2025-22701 Overview

CVE-2025-22701 is a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in the Traveler Layout Essential For Elementor WordPress plugin developed by shinetheme. The flaw affects all plugin versions up to and including 1.4. An unauthenticated attacker can coerce the vulnerable WordPress server into issuing HTTP requests to arbitrary destinations. This can expose internal services, cloud metadata endpoints, and other network resources that would otherwise be unreachable. The vulnerability is tracked under CWE-918: Server-Side Request Forgery.

Critical Impact
Unauthenticated attackers can abuse the WordPress server as a proxy to reach internal-only systems, retrieve metadata, and enumerate networks behind the perimeter.

Affected Products

shinetheme Traveler Layout Essential For Elementor plugin for WordPress
All versions from initial release through < 1.4
WordPress installations running the vulnerable plugin

Discovery Timeline

2025-02-03 - CVE-2025-22701 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-22701

Vulnerability Analysis

The Traveler Layout Essential For Elementor plugin extends the Elementor page builder with layout components used by travel-themed WordPress sites. The plugin accepts a user-supplied URL or resource identifier and issues an outbound HTTP request without sufficient validation of the destination. Because the request originates from the WordPress server, it inherits the server's network position and can reach internal-only endpoints.

The vulnerability requires no authentication and no user interaction. The attack complexity is elevated because certain conditions must be met to reach a useful internal target. Successful exploitation results in limited confidentiality and integrity impact on resources beyond the vulnerable component, which is reflected in the scope-changed classification.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing or insufficient validation of URL parameters passed to a server-side HTTP request function. The plugin does not restrict the scheme, host, or IP range of the target URL. Attacker-controlled input reaches an outbound request primitive such as wp_remote_get or curl_exec without allowlist enforcement, filtering of private address ranges, or DNS rebinding protection.

Attack Vector

An unauthenticated remote attacker sends a crafted HTTP request to the vulnerable plugin endpoint. The request contains a URL parameter pointing to an internal resource such as http://127.0.0.1, http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/ on AWS, or an internal service on http://10.0.0.0/8. The plugin fetches the specified URL server-side and may return the response or side-effects to the attacker. See the Patchstack advisory for technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-22701

Indicators of Compromise

Outbound HTTP requests originating from the WordPress server to internal IP ranges such as 127.0.0.1, 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, or 192.168.0.0/16
Requests to cloud metadata endpoints such as 169.254.169.254 from the web server process
Anomalous inbound requests targeting Traveler Layout Essential For Elementor plugin endpoints with URL parameters
Unexpected outbound DNS lookups for attacker-controlled domains from the web server

Detection Strategies

Inspect web server access logs for requests to plugin endpoints containing URL or resource parameters with http://, https://, or file:// schemes
Monitor egress traffic from WordPress servers to non-standard destinations, particularly RFC1918 space and link-local addresses
Deploy WAF rules that detect SSRF payload patterns in query strings and POST bodies aimed at plugin routes

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable detailed request logging on the WordPress instance and forward logs to a centralized SIEM for correlation
Alert on any web server process initiating connections to cloud metadata services
Track plugin version inventory across WordPress fleet to identify unpatched installations of Traveler Layout Essential For Elementor

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-22701

Immediate Actions Required

Update Traveler Layout Essential For Elementor to a version later than 1.4 as soon as the vendor releases a patched release
Disable or remove the plugin if a patched version is not yet available and the functionality is not business-critical
Restrict outbound network access from the WordPress server to only required destinations at the host or network firewall level

Patch Information

Refer to the Patchstack advisory for CVE-2025-22701 for the latest vendor patch status. Apply the plugin update through the WordPress admin dashboard or via wp-cli once available.

Workarounds

Block egress traffic from the WordPress server to internal IP ranges and cloud metadata endpoint 169.254.169.254 using host-based firewall rules
Deploy WAF rules that reject requests to plugin endpoints containing URLs referencing private address space, localhost, or metadata IPs
Enforce IMDSv2 on AWS instances hosting WordPress to require session tokens for metadata access

bash

# Example iptables rule to block WordPress egress to cloud metadata service
iptables -A OUTPUT -m owner --uid-owner www-data -d 169.254.169.254 -j DROP
iptables -A OUTPUT -m owner --uid-owner www-data -d 127.0.0.0/8 ! -o lo -j DROP