CVE-2025-6327: King Addons for Elementor RCE Vulnerability

CVE-2025-6327 Overview

CVE-2025-6327 is an Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type vulnerability affecting the King Addons for Elementor WordPress plugin. This critical flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to upload arbitrary files, including web shells, to vulnerable WordPress installations. The vulnerability stems from insufficient file type validation in the plugin's upload functionality, enabling complete server compromise through remote code execution.

Critical Impact

Attackers can upload malicious PHP web shells to WordPress servers without authentication, leading to complete site takeover, data theft, malware distribution, and potential lateral movement within the hosting infrastructure.

Affected Products

• King Addons for Elementor plugin versions through 24.51.1.36
• WordPress installations running vulnerable King Addons versions
• Websites using Elementor page builder with King Addons extension

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-11-06 - CVE-2025-6327 published to NVD
• 2026-01-20 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-6327

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as CWE-434 (Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type), representing a fundamental failure in file upload security controls. The King Addons for Elementor plugin fails to properly validate file types during the upload process, allowing attackers to bypass intended restrictions and upload executable PHP files.

The attack can be executed remotely over the network without requiring any user interaction or prior authentication. Due to the scope-changing nature of this vulnerability, a successful exploit can impact resources beyond the vulnerable component itself, potentially compromising the entire WordPress installation and underlying server infrastructure.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-6327 lies in the plugin's inadequate implementation of file upload validation. The vulnerable code path does not enforce proper checks on uploaded file extensions, MIME types, or file contents. This allows attackers to submit files with dangerous extensions such as .php, .phtml, or other executable formats that the web server will process as code.

Common patterns in such vulnerabilities include:

• Reliance on client-side validation only
• Incomplete server-side MIME type checking
• Failure to sanitize or rename uploaded files
• Lack of content-based file type verification

Attack Vector

The exploitation of this vulnerability follows a straightforward web shell upload attack pattern. An attacker identifies a WordPress site running a vulnerable version of King Addons for Elementor and crafts a malicious HTTP request to the vulnerable upload endpoint.

The attack flow typically involves:

1. Reconnaissance to identify the target plugin and version
2. Crafting a multipart form request containing a PHP web shell
3. Bypassing any weak client-side restrictions through direct HTTP requests
4. Accessing the uploaded web shell to execute arbitrary commands on the server

Once a web shell is successfully uploaded, the attacker gains the ability to execute system commands, read sensitive files including wp-config.php database credentials, install backdoors, pivot to other systems, or use the compromised server for further malicious activities.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-6327

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected PHP files appearing in WordPress upload directories (wp-content/uploads/)
• Suspicious file names with random strings or obfuscated patterns in upload folders
• Web server access logs showing POST requests to unusual King Addons endpoints
• New files with recent timestamps containing obfuscated PHP code or shell commands
• Database queries or file access patterns indicative of reconnaissance activity

Detection Strategies

• Monitor WordPress upload directories for newly created PHP files using file integrity monitoring
• Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to block uploads of executable file types
• Review web server access logs for POST requests containing suspicious file extensions
• Deploy endpoint detection to identify web shell behavior patterns such as command execution
• Scan for known web shell signatures and obfuscated PHP code in the uploads directory

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable real-time file system monitoring on WordPress installations with alerting for new executable files
• Configure centralized logging for all HTTP POST requests to plugin endpoints
• Implement anomaly detection for unusual outbound connections from the web server
• Set up alerts for privilege escalation attempts or unusual process spawning from web server processes

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-6327

Immediate Actions Required

• Update King Addons for Elementor to a patched version immediately if available
• If no patch is available, deactivate and remove the King Addons for Elementor plugin
• Scan the WordPress uploads directory and plugin folders for any suspicious PHP files
• Review web server logs for evidence of exploitation attempts or successful uploads
• Consider implementing a Web Application Firewall with upload filtering capabilities

Patch Information

Security researchers at Patchstack have documented this vulnerability. Site administrators should check the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for the latest patch status and remediation guidance. Monitor the official King Addons plugin page for security updates addressing this vulnerability.

Workarounds

• Disable file upload functionality in King Addons if possible through plugin settings
• Implement server-level restrictions to prevent PHP execution in upload directories using .htaccess rules
• Deploy a WAF rule to block POST requests containing PHP file extensions to King Addons endpoints
• Restrict access to WordPress admin and plugin endpoints using IP allowlisting where feasible

# Apache .htaccess to prevent PHP execution in uploads
# Add to wp-content/uploads/.htaccess
<FilesMatch "\.(?:php|phtml|php[3-7]|phps)$">
    Require all denied
</FilesMatch>

# Alternative for Nginx - add to server block
location ~* /wp-content/uploads/.*\.php$ {
    deny all;
}