A severe security vulnerability has been discovered in the popular InstaWP Connect WordPress plugin, potentially exposing thousands of websites to remote attacks. 

Security researchers at Wordfence identified and reported the critical flaw (CVE-2025-2636), which allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected websites.

Website administrators are urged to update immediately as the vulnerability received a CVSS score of 9.8, the highest severity rating possible.

InstaWP Connect Plugin LFI Vulnerability

The vulnerability affects all versions of the InstaWP Connect plugin up to and including 0.1.0.85. 

This Local File Inclusion (LFI) flaw exists in the plugin’s database management functionality and can be exploited via the instawp-database-manager parameter. 

The technical classification is CWE-73: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory (‘Path Traversal’).

InstaWP Connect is a popular WordPress staging and migration plugin that enables users to create one-click staging environments and perform site migrations. 

The plugin works as a companion tool for InstaWP, allowing users to connect existing WordPress sites to the InstaWP platform for staging, development, and testing purposes. 

Security researcher Cheng Liu discovered that the plugin fails to properly validate user input before passing it to PHP, including functions.

A malicious actor could exploit this vulnerability using a simple HTTP request structure:

This request could allow attackers to include and execute arbitrary files on the server without authentication. The exploit vector is particularly dangerous because:

It requires no user authentication

It can be executed remotely

It potentially allows for complete server compromise

The summary of the vulnerability is given below:

Risk FactorsDetailsAffected ProductsInstaWP Connect Plugin for WordPress (versions  Try 14-day Free Trial