Critical Unauthenticated RCE Vulnerability in W3 Total Cache WordPress Plugin (CVE-2025-9501)
A critical vulnerability (CVE-2025-9501) has been identified in the W3 Total Cache WordPress plugin, affecting versions prior to 2.8.13. This flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary PHP commands on affected sites by submitting a specially crafted comment, exploiting the _parse_dynamic_mfunc function. The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS score of 9.0, indicating a high risk of remote code execution, and potentially impacts up to 1 million WordPress sites using the vulnerable plugin version.
Security researchers warn that exploitation of this vulnerability could allow attackers to fully compromise WordPress installations without authentication, leading to site defacement, data theft, or further malware deployment. Administrators are strongly advised to update W3 Total Cache to version 2.8.13 or later to mitigate the risk, as the vulnerability is remotely exploitable and poses a significant threat to a large number of websites.
Timeline
Nov 19, 2025
Technical exploitation details for CVE-2025-9501 are published
Researchers disclosed that the bug stems from eval() use in the _parse_dynamic_mfunc function and can be exploited through crafted comments when the W3TC_DYNAMIC_SECURITY secret is known, comments are enabled, and Page Cache is active. A working pre-auth RCE exploit was confirmed and published, providing concrete technical details about exploitability.
Nov 17, 2025
CVE-2025-9501 is publicly disclosed as a critical W3 Total Cache flaw
Public reporting identified CVE-2025-9501 as a critical vulnerability in W3 Total Cache versions before 2.8.13, affecting a plugin with more than 1 million WordPress installations. The flaw was described as an unauthenticated command injection with a CVSS score of 9.0.
Nov 17, 2025
Researcher reports CVE-2025-9501 in W3 Total Cache to WPScan
The unauthenticated command injection flaw later assigned CVE-2025-9501 was originally reported by researcher wcraft to WPScan. The issue affected W3 Total Cache and could lead to remote code execution under certain plugin configurations.
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