CVE-2025-67997: Travelicious Object Injection Vulnerability

CVE-2025-67997 Overview

CVE-2025-67997 is a critical Insecure Deserialization vulnerability affecting the BoldThemes Travelicious WordPress theme. This PHP Object Injection flaw allows remote attackers to inject malicious serialized objects through untrusted data inputs, potentially leading to remote code execution, unauthorized data access, or complete site compromise.

Critical Impact
Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this PHP Object Injection vulnerability to execute arbitrary code, manipulate application logic, or gain unauthorized access to the WordPress installation without requiring any user interaction.

Affected Products

BoldThemes Travelicious WordPress Theme versions prior to 1.6.7
WordPress installations running vulnerable Travelicious theme versions

Discovery Timeline

2026-02-20 - CVE CVE-2025-67997 published to NVD
2026-02-24 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-67997

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-502 (Deserialization of Untrusted Data). The Travelicious WordPress theme fails to properly validate and sanitize serialized data before processing it through PHP's unserialize() function. When untrusted user input is passed directly to deserialization functions without adequate filtering, attackers can craft malicious serialized payloads that instantiate arbitrary objects.

In WordPress environments, PHP Object Injection vulnerabilities are particularly dangerous due to the presence of "gadget chains" - sequences of existing classes that can be chained together during deserialization to achieve unintended outcomes. Depending on the plugins and theme code loaded, attackers may leverage these chains to write arbitrary files, execute system commands, or escalate privileges within the application.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability lies in the unsafe handling of serialized PHP data within the Travelicious theme. The theme accepts user-controlled input and passes it to PHP's native unserialize() function without implementing proper validation, type checking, or allowlisting of permitted object classes. This design flaw enables attackers to control the instantiation of arbitrary PHP objects and trigger potentially dangerous magic methods such as __wakeup(), __destruct(), or __toString() during the deserialization process.

Attack Vector

The vulnerability is exploitable over the network without requiring authentication or user interaction. An attacker can submit a specially crafted HTTP request containing a malicious serialized PHP payload to a vulnerable endpoint within the Travelicious theme. When the application processes this request and deserializes the attacker-controlled data, the injected objects are instantiated.

The exploitation typically follows this pattern: the attacker identifies an entry point that processes serialized data, constructs a payload leveraging available PHP classes (gadget chains) present in WordPress core, installed plugins, or the theme itself, and submits the malicious payload. Upon deserialization, the payload triggers a chain of method calls that ultimately execute the attacker's intended actions.

For detailed technical information about this vulnerability, refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-67997

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected PHP error logs referencing deserialization failures or class instantiation errors
Web server access logs containing suspicious base64-encoded or URL-encoded serialized PHP objects in request parameters
Unusual file creation or modification in WordPress directories, particularly in wp-content/uploads/ or theme directories
Unexpected outbound network connections from the web server process

Detection Strategies

Monitor web application logs for requests containing serialized PHP object patterns (strings starting with O: followed by numeric values indicating object serialization)
Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block serialized PHP payloads in HTTP request parameters
Deploy file integrity monitoring on critical WordPress directories to detect unauthorized modifications
Review PHP error logs for deserialization-related exceptions and class loading errors

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable detailed logging for the WordPress application and web server to capture suspicious request patterns
Configure real-time alerting for file system changes in WordPress core, theme, and plugin directories
Monitor for anomalous process spawning from the web server user account (e.g., www-data or apache)
Implement network monitoring to detect unusual outbound connections from the WordPress server

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-67997

Immediate Actions Required

Update the BoldThemes Travelicious theme to version 1.6.7 or later immediately
Review server logs for any indicators of exploitation attempts or successful compromise
Conduct a security audit of the WordPress installation to identify any unauthorized modifications
Consider temporarily disabling the Travelicious theme if an immediate update is not possible

Patch Information

BoldThemes has addressed this vulnerability in Travelicious theme version 1.6.7. Site administrators should update to this version or later through the WordPress admin dashboard or by downloading the patched version directly from the theme vendor. After updating, verify the theme version is correctly displayed in the WordPress Themes section.

For additional details, consult the Patchstack Vulnerability Report.

Workarounds

If immediate patching is not feasible, temporarily switch to a different WordPress theme until the update can be applied
Implement WAF rules to block requests containing serialized PHP object patterns targeting the affected endpoints
Restrict access to the WordPress admin and theme-related endpoints using IP-based access controls
Enable WordPress security plugins that provide virtual patching capabilities for known vulnerabilities

bash

# Example: Restrict access to WordPress admin via .htaccess
# Add to .htaccess in wp-admin directory
<IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
    Require ip 192.168.1.0/24
    Require ip 10.0.0.0/8
</IfModule>

# Example: Block serialized PHP objects in mod_security
SecRule ARGS "@rx O:\d+:\"" "id:100001,phase:2,deny,status:403,msg:'PHP Object Injection Attempt'"