Deserialization of Untrusted DataWeakness · CWE-502

CVE-2025-49434

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-08-20
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in axiomthemes Cars4Rent cars4rent allows Object Injection.This issue affects Cars4Rent: from n/a through <= 1.4.2.

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 confidence

The Cars4Rent WordPress theme by axiomthemes contains a PHP Object Injection vulnerability caused by deserialization of untrusted data. This allows remote attackers to inject malicious PHP objects, potentially leading to remote code execution through magic method invocation (e.g., __wakeup, __destruct). The vulnerability affects versions up to and including 1.4.2.

MitigationUpdate the Cars4Rent theme to the latest patched version immediately. If no patched version is available, disable the theme and consider deploying a WAF rule to block serialized object payloads.

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
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Cars4Rent theme installation
    Navigate to wp-content/themes/ and check if the cars4rent directory exists. In WordPress admin, go to Appearance > Themes to verify if the theme is active.
    Affected if The cars4rent theme directory exists in wp-content/themes/ and the theme is active or installed.
  2. Identify the installed version
    Open wp-content/themes/cars4rent/style.css and locate the 'Version:' header in the file comments. Alternatively, check the theme's functions.php for a version constant.
    Affected if The version number displayed is 1.4.2 or lower.
  3. Locate deserialization functions in theme files
    Search all PHP files in the cars4rent theme directory for 'unserialize(' patterns. Use grep or a file search: grep -r "unserialize" wp-content/themes/cars4rent/
    Affected if The theme contains any unserialize() calls that process data from external sources (request parameters, cookies, POST/GET input, or AJAX endpoints).
  4. Check for user input reaching deserialization
    Examine files containing unserialize() calls. Trace whether parameters from $_GET, $_POST, $_COOKIE, or file uploads are passed directly to unserialize() without validation.
    Affected if User-controlled data (from HTTP requests) is passed to unserialize() without sanitization or signature validation.
  5. Identify exposed endpoints accepting serialized data
    Review AJAX handlers (admin-ajax.php hooks) and front-end form handlers within the theme. Check wp-content/themes/cars4rent/inc/ and includes/ directories for request processing files.
    Affected if The theme exposes any public or authenticated endpoints that accept and deserialize data from request parameters.

Your environment is affected if the Cars4Rent theme version is 1.4.2 or lower AND the theme contains unserialize() calls that process untrusted user input from HTTP requests.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update the Cars4Rent theme to the latest patched version immediately. If no patched version is available, disable the theme and consider deploying a WAF rule to block serialized object payloads.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,390
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Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-49434 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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