CVE-2025-13374 — CRITICAL (CVSS 9.8) AI Security Vulnerability

CISO Take

CVE-2025-13374 is a critical unauthenticated RCE vulnerability in the Kalrav AI Agent WordPress plugin — any site running version ≤2.3.3 is fully exposed with zero prerequisites for exploitation. An attacker can upload a PHP web shell and achieve full server compromise in under five minutes, with a public PoC already available on GitHub. Immediately disable or remove the plugin; if the server has been internet-exposed since January 2025, treat it as potentially compromised and rotate all AI API keys stored on that host.

Risk Assessment

CRITICAL. CVSS 9.8 with network-accessible, zero-authentication, zero-interaction exploitation. The plugin's AJAX handler accepts file uploads without any type or extension validation, meaning any unauthenticated HTTP POST can plant executable code on the server. Exposure is every public-facing WordPress site with the plugin installed — no scanning, fingerprinting, or credential acquisition needed. A working PoC (github.com/d0n601/CVE-2025-13374) is already public, making mass exploitation by unsophisticated attackers highly likely.

Severity & Risk

CVSS 3.1

9.8 / 10

EPSS

0.1%

chance of exploitation in 30 days

Higher than 25% of all CVEs

Source: EPSS v3 — FIRST.org

Exploitation Status

Exploit Available

Exploitation: MEDIUM

Sophistication

Trivial

Exploitation Confidence

medium

○ Public PoC indexed (trickest/cve)

Composite signal derived from CISA KEV, CISA SSVC, EPSS, trickest/cve, and Nuclei templates.

Attack Surface

AV Network

AC Low

PR None

UI None

S Unchanged

C High

I High

A High

Recommended Action

7 steps

IMMEDIATE

Enumerate all WordPress installations with kalrav-ai-agent plugin ≤2.3.3 across your environment.
DISABLE or REMOVE the plugin — no patch is available; do not wait.
SCAN webroot and upload directories for recently created .php, .phtml, .phar, or .cgi files (check last 60 days minimum).
AUDIT server logs for POST requests to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=kalrav_upload_file — any hit is a confirmed exploitation attempt.
ROTATE all AI API keys stored on the affected server (OpenAI, Anthropic, database credentials, Stripe keys).
If compromise is confirmed, treat server as fully owned and perform fresh OS-level deployment.
As a temporary WAF control if removal is not immediately possible, block multipart/form-data POST requests to the vulnerable AJAX action endpoint.

CISA SSVC Assessment

Decision Track*

Exploitation none

Automatable Yes

Technical Impact total

Source: CISA Vulnrichment (SSVC v2.0). Decision based on the CISA Coordinator decision tree.

Classification

Code Execution Auth Bypass Data Extraction Plugin Agent API AML.T0010.001 - AI Software AML.T0037 - Data from Local System AML.T0049 - Exploit Public-Facing Application AML.T0050 - Command and Scripting Interpreter AML.T0053 - AI Agent Tool Invocation AML.T0072 - Reverse Shell AML.T0081 - Modify AI Agent Configuration AML.T0083 - Credentials from AI Agent Configuration

Compliance Impact

This CVE is relevant to:

EU AI Act

Article 15 - Accuracy, robustness and cybersecurity

ISO 42001

A.6.2 - AI system security A.6.2.6 - AI system security and resilience A.8.4 - AI system acquisition, development and maintenance

NIST AI RMF

MANAGE 2.2 - Mechanisms are in place to respond to and recover from incidents MANAGE-2.2 - Mechanisms are in place and applied to sustain the value of deployed AI systems MAP 2.1 - Scientific findings and organizational risks are identified and used

OWASP LLM Top 10

LLM07 - Insecure Plugin Design LLM08 - Excessive Agency

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-13374?

CVE-2025-13374 is a critical unauthenticated RCE vulnerability in the Kalrav AI Agent WordPress plugin — any site running version ≤2.3.3 is fully exposed with zero prerequisites for exploitation. An attacker can upload a PHP web shell and achieve full server compromise in under five minutes, with a public PoC already available on GitHub. Immediately disable or remove the plugin; if the server has been internet-exposed since January 2025, treat it as potentially compromised and rotate all AI API keys stored on that host.

Is CVE-2025-13374 actively exploited?

Proof-of-concept exploit code is publicly available for CVE-2025-13374, increasing the risk of exploitation.

How to fix CVE-2025-13374?

1. IMMEDIATE: Enumerate all WordPress installations with kalrav-ai-agent plugin ≤2.3.3 across your environment. 2. DISABLE or REMOVE the plugin — no patch is available; do not wait. 3. SCAN webroot and upload directories for recently created .php, .phtml, .phar, or .cgi files (check last 60 days minimum). 4. AUDIT server logs for POST requests to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=kalrav_upload_file — any hit is a confirmed exploitation attempt. 5. ROTATE all AI API keys stored on the affected server (OpenAI, Anthropic, database credentials, Stripe keys). 6. If compromise is confirmed, treat server as fully owned and perform fresh OS-level deployment. 7. As a temporary WAF control if removal is not immediately possible, block multipart/form-data POST requests to the vulnerable AJAX action endpoint.

What systems are affected by CVE-2025-13374?

This vulnerability affects the following AI/ML architecture patterns: WordPress AI agent deployments, Plugin-based AI chatbot integrations, Web-hosted model inference frontends, AI agent frameworks with web interfaces, Server-side RAG pipelines accessible from compromised WordPress host.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2025-13374?

CVE-2025-13374 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL). The EPSS exploitation probability is 0.09%.

Technical Details

NVD Description

The Kalrav AI Agent plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary file uploads due to missing file type validation in the kalrav_upload_file AJAX action in all versions up to, and including, 2.3.3. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to upload arbitrary files on the affected site's server which may make remote code execution possible.

Exploitation Scenario

An adversary uses WPScan or Shodan to identify WordPress sites running the Kalrav AI Agent plugin. With a single unauthenticated HTTP POST to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=kalrav_upload_file, they upload a PHP web shell — no extension validation means any filename works. They browse to the uploaded file URL to gain interactive command execution. Within minutes they extract OpenAI/Anthropic API keys from wp-config.php and server environment variables, dump the WordPress database for user PII, establish persistence via a cron-based reverse shell, and pivot to internal AI services reachable from the server. The full chain requires no credentials, no AI/ML knowledge, and under five minutes of effort.