CVE-2025-11705
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary File Read in all versions up to, and including, 4.23.81 due to a missing capability check combined with an information exposure in several GOTMLS_* AJAX actions. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to read the contents of arbitrary files on the server, which can contain sensitive information.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall plugin for WordPress versions up to 4.23.81 lacks proper capability validation on multiple GOTMLS_* AJAX actions, allowing any authenticated user with Subscriber-level permissions or higher to read arbitrary files on the server by manipulating file path parameters.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm WordPress installationLook for wp-config.php in the web root directory, or check the site responds with WordPress admin or login pagesAffected if The target is a WordPress site
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Verify the Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall plugin is installedCheck the /wp-content/plugins/ directory for a folder named 'better-wp-security', 'anti-malware-security', or similar, or list installed plugins via wp-cli: wp plugin list --status=inactiveAffected if The plugin directory or plugin list shows this specific plugin is present on the system
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Determine the installed plugin versionCheck the plugin's main PHP file header for the Version comment, typically in /wp-content/plugins/[plugin-folder]/anti-malware.php, or run: wp plugin get anti-malware-security --format=versionAffected if The reported version is 4.23.81 or lower (any version up to and including 4.23.81)
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Confirm the plugin is activeRun: wp plugin list --status=active --filter=name=anti-malware OR check the WordPress admin plugins page, or inspect the active_plugins option in wp_options database tableAffected if The plugin appears in the active plugins list
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Verify low-privilege user existenceCheck WordPress users with Subscriber role: wp user list --role=subscriber OR inspect the wp_usermeta table for wp_capabilities containing 'subscriber', or verify if user registration is enabled with Subscriber as default roleAffected if At least one user account exists with Subscriber-level permissions, or user registration allows creating such accounts
The environment is affected if WordPress is running with the Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall plugin active at version 4.23.81 or lower AND any authenticated user with Subscriber-level permissions or higher can access the site.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpdate the plugin to version 4.23.82 or later which includes proper capability checks. If an update is unavailable, disable the plugin or restrict AJAX endpoint access at the server level.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,272.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-11705 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-11705 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data