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Popular Automotive WordPress Theme Under Active Exploit
A critical security flaw in the widely used WordPress theme Motors is currently being exploited in the wild, allowing hackers to escalate privileges and seize full control of targeted websites. Developed by StylemixThemes, the Motors theme is particularly popular among car dealerships and automotive service providers, with over 22,000 installations via EnvatoMarket. Security firm Wordfence has raised the alarm about the flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-4322, urging users to upgrade immediately to the patched version. Despite the fix being released in mid-May, thousands of sites remain vulnerable, and cybercriminals have wasted no time launching mass exploitation campaigns.
A Dangerous Bug in a Popular Theme
Hackers are exploiting a serious flaw in the WordPress Motors theme that allows them to hijack admin accounts and take over entire websites. Wordfence, a well-known cybersecurity company focused on WordPress, discovered this vulnerabilityāofficially logged as CVE-2025-4322āand issued a warning on May 19, 2025. The issue stems from improper identity validation during password updates, enabling unauthenticated users to reset administrator passwords. Once an attacker gains access, they can create new admin accounts, permanently compromising the site.
The flaw affects all versions of Motors up to 5.6.67. Although a fixed version (5.6.68) was released on May 14, many users hadnāt updated by the time Wordfence published its detailed disclosure. Within just 24 hours of the public advisory, hackers began actively targeting sites using the vulnerable theme. By June 7, over 23,000 attack attempts had already been blocked by Wordfence on customer websites.
The attack method targets the
Signs of compromise include unfamiliar admin accounts appearing in the WordPress dashboard and legitimate administrators being locked out due to invalid credentials. Wordfence has published a list of suspicious IP addresses known to be launching these attacks, which should be blocked immediately by site owners. The situation illustrates why timely patching is no longer optionalāand why many IT teams are now shifting to automated patch management systems.
What Undercode Say:
A Perfect Storm of Popularity, Vulnerability, and Negligence
This attack wave underscores one of the
Whatās especially alarming is how fast the threat evolved. Wordfence disclosed the flaw publicly on May 19, and by May 20, hackers were already launching targeted campaigns. This rapid turnaround suggests that attackers were either monitoring Wordfence or had already been aware of the bug through private forums or leak channels. The scale of attacks, exceeding 23,000 blocked attempts in just two weeks, reflects a well-organized effort rather than random opportunism.
The vulnerability itself is rooted in poor logic: the password reset feature failed to properly validate a user’s identity. Itās a classic mistake with devastating consequences. The attack manipulates malformed UTF-8 encoding in the āhash_checkā field, which short-circuits the validation and tricks the backend into processing the request as legitimate. Once in, the attacker changes the password, logs in as admin, and sets up multiple backdoors for continued access. Itās clean, itās fast, and itās hard to detect until itās too late.
What makes this case even more critical is that detection isnāt easy for the average website owner. Many wonāt realize theyāve been compromised until theyāre locked out of their own dashboard. The appearance of unknown admin users and blocked access are often the first signs of troubleābut by then, the attacker may have already planted deeper persistence methods like file edits, rogue plugins, or remote shells.
From a broader perspective, this attack highlights a growing gap in WordPress site security. Many users rely on one-click installations and seldom revisit security settings after the site is live. Worse, a significant percentage of WordPress admins delay updates, fearing site breakage or theme incompatibilities. Unfortunately, this reluctance is now being weaponized by threat actors who monitor plugin and theme vulnerabilities closely, exploiting delays in patch rollout.
IT teams must treat themes and plugins as code, not decoration. They introduce attack surfaces just like any other software. The best approach is a combination of proactive patching, strict user privilege policies, automated security monitoring, and real-time threat intelligence. Manual patching, especially in growing website portfolios, is simply too slow to handle modern threats.
Lastly, this situation has implications beyond WordPress. Itās a case study in how supply-chain security affects the CMS ecosystem at large. The more your site relies on third-party components, the more doors you leave open for attack. Thatās the hard lesson many Motors users are learning the hard way right now.
š Fact Checker Results:
ā
CVE-2025-4322 is a real and confirmed vulnerability in the Motors WordPress theme
ā
Wordfence officially disclosed the flaw and observed over 23,000 attack attempts
ā No evidence suggests the attack stems from a zero-day exploit; it followed public disclosure
š Prediction:
Given the scale and speed of these attacks, expect continued exploitation of CVE-2025-4322 for at least another 3-4 weeks, especially among unpatched sites. Similar privilege escalation vulnerabilities in other themes may soon be targeted using comparable techniques. Security plugins will adapt, but only users who actively patch and monitor their systems will remain protected. Expect automated scanners and botnets to begin targeting this flaw at an even larger scale as exploits spread across cybercriminal forums.
References:
Reported By: www.bleepingcomputer.com
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