CVE-2025-26753: Broadcast Live Video Path Traversal Flaw

CVE-2025-26753 Overview

CVE-2025-26753 is a Path Traversal vulnerability affecting the VideoWhisper Broadcast Live Video (videowhisper-live-streaming-integration) plugin for WordPress. This improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory allows unauthenticated attackers to download arbitrary files from the web server through crafted requests that traverse directory paths beyond intended boundaries.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability to read sensitive files from the server, potentially exposing configuration files, database credentials, WordPress secrets, and other confidential data without any authentication requirements.

Affected Products

• VideoWhisper Broadcast Live Video (videowhisper-live-streaming-integration) WordPress Plugin versions up to and including 6.2
• WordPress installations running vulnerable versions of the plugin
• Web servers hosting WordPress sites with this plugin enabled

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-02-25 - CVE CVE-2025-26753 published to NVD
• 2026-04-23 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-26753

Vulnerability Analysis

This Path Traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) exists in the VideoWhisper Live Streaming Integration plugin due to improper validation of user-supplied file path input. The plugin fails to adequately sanitize directory traversal sequences (such as ../) in file download functionality, enabling attackers to escape the intended directory structure and access files anywhere on the filesystem that the web server process has read permissions for.

The vulnerability can be exploited remotely over the network without any authentication or user interaction. While the vulnerability allows unauthorized reading of sensitive files, it does not directly enable file modification or system availability impact according to the vulnerability characteristics.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is insufficient input validation and sanitization of file path parameters within the plugin's file handling functionality. The application fails to implement proper path canonicalization or validation checks that would prevent directory traversal sequences from being processed. This allows malicious input containing sequences like ../ or encoded variants to traverse outside the intended directory scope.

Attack Vector

The attack is executed remotely over the network, requiring no authentication or privileges. An attacker can craft HTTP requests containing path traversal sequences targeting the vulnerable file download functionality within the plugin. By manipulating file path parameters with sequences such as ../../../etc/passwd or ....//....//wp-config.php, attackers can traverse directories and access sensitive files including WordPress configuration files containing database credentials, server configuration files, and other sensitive data stored on the web server.

The exploitation typically involves sending crafted GET or POST requests to the vulnerable endpoint with manipulated path parameters. Since no authentication is required, any external attacker with network access to the WordPress site can potentially exploit this vulnerability.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-26753

Indicators of Compromise

• Web server access logs showing requests to VideoWhisper plugin endpoints containing directory traversal sequences (../, ..%2f, %2e%2e/)
• Unusual file access patterns in server logs, particularly requests attempting to access /etc/passwd, wp-config.php, or other sensitive files
• HTTP requests with encoded path traversal sequences targeting plugin file download functionality
• Evidence of sensitive file contents being exfiltrated through HTTP responses

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block path traversal patterns in HTTP requests
• Configure intrusion detection systems to alert on directory traversal sequence patterns in web traffic
• Enable verbose logging on WordPress and web server to capture suspicious request patterns
• Monitor for requests to the videowhisper-live-streaming-integration plugin endpoints with abnormal parameters

Monitoring Recommendations

• Review web server access logs regularly for path traversal attempt patterns
• Set up alerting for requests containing ../ sequences or URL-encoded equivalents targeting WordPress plugin directories
• Monitor file access on the server for unauthorized reads of sensitive configuration files
• Implement real-time log analysis to detect exploitation attempts targeting known vulnerable endpoints

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-26753

Immediate Actions Required

• Immediately deactivate and remove the VideoWhisper Live Streaming Integration plugin version 6.2 or earlier from all WordPress installations
• Audit server logs for any evidence of prior exploitation attempts
• If exploitation is suspected, rotate all credentials stored in server configuration files including WordPress database credentials
• Consider implementing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to block path traversal attempts while remediation is in progress

Patch Information

At the time of this analysis, organizations should check the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for the latest patch status and any updated plugin versions that address this vulnerability. If no patched version is available, consider alternative streaming solutions until a fix is released by the vendor.

Workarounds

• Disable or uninstall the VideoWhisper Live Streaming Integration plugin until a patched version is available
• Implement WAF rules to block requests containing path traversal sequences targeting the plugin
• Restrict file system permissions to limit web server process access to sensitive directories
• Use server-level access controls to whitelist allowed directories for plugin file operations

# Apache .htaccess rule to block path traversal attempts
# Add to WordPress .htaccess file
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (\.\./|\.\.\\) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (\.\./|\.\.\\) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>