Deserialization of Untrusted DataWeakness · CWE-502

CVE-2025-68541

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-02-20
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 BoldThemes Ippsum ippsum allows Object Injection.This issue affects Ippsum: from n/a through <= 1.2.0.

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 · moderate confidence

The BoldThemes Ippsum theme contains a PHP Object Injection vulnerability caused by unsafe deserialization of untrusted data. An attacker can exploit this by passing malicious serialized PHP objects to the application, potentially leading to remote code execution, file operations, or SQL injection depending on available gadget chains in the application environment.

MitigationUpdate Ippsum to the latest patched version. If no patch is available, identify and sanitize/desecure the deserialization functions handling user input, or disable the vulnerable component until a fix is released.

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. Locate the BoldThemes Ippsum theme
    Check your WordPress installation's wp-content/themes/ directory for a folder named 'ippsum' or search for files containing 'BoldThemes' and 'Ippsum' in the theme header. Check the style.css file inside the theme folder for the Version: comment.
    Affected if The theme folder exists and contains Ippsum theme files.
  2. Determine the installed version
    Open the theme's style.css file and look for the 'Version:' declaration in the file header comments. Alternatively, check any version.php or info.json file in the theme directory.
    Affected if The version number is lower than 1.2.1 or cannot be determined (indicating an older release).
  3. Search for unsafe unserialize() calls
    Use grep or a file search to scan all PHP files in the ippsum theme directory for the pattern 'unserialize(' without the allowed_classes parameter. Example: grep -r "unserialize(" /path/to/themes/ippsum/
    Affected if Files contain unserialize() calls that do not use the allowed_classes parameter for whitelisting.
  4. Check if deserialization input is user-controlled
    Examine the code around the unserialize() calls found. Look for data coming from $_GET, $_POST, $_REQUEST, $_COOKIE, or HTTP headers being passed directly to unserialize().
    Affected if Untrusted HTTP input (request parameters, cookies, or headers) flows directly into unserialize() without validation.
  5. Identify if vulnerable code is in reachable paths
    Check if the vulnerable PHP files are accessible via direct HTTP access (not only included internally). Look in files like functions.php, ajax handlers, or template files that process front-end or admin requests.
    Affected if The unsafe unserialize() is in files that handle AJAX requests, form submissions, or are directly accessible via web browser.

You are affected if the BoldThemes Ippsum theme is installed with a version lower than 1.2.1 and contains unsafe unserialize() calls processing untrusted input in accessible PHP files.

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 Ippsum to the latest patched version. If no patch is available, identify and sanitize/desecure the deserialization functions handling user input, or disable the vulnerable component until a fix is released.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-68541 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-68541 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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