CVE-2022-25305
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into the WP Statistics WordPress plugin's IP parameter. When site administrators view statistics pages, these scripts execute in their browsers, potentially compromising administrative accounts. All WordPress sites using WP Statistics versions up to 13.1.5 are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- WP Statistics WordPress Plugin
📦 What is this software?
Wp Statistics by Veronalabs
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers gain administrative access to WordPress sites, leading to complete site takeover, data theft, malware distribution, or ransomware deployment.
Likely Case
Attackers steal administrator session cookies or credentials, enabling unauthorized access to the WordPress dashboard and subsequent malicious actions.
If Mitigated
With proper input validation and output escaping, the attack fails, and administrators see sanitized IP data without script execution.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires tricking administrators into viewing maliciously crafted statistics pages. Public proof-of-concept code exists in GitHub gists.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 13.1.6 and later
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin dashboard. 2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins. 3. Find WP Statistics and click 'Update Now'. 4. Verify version is 13.1.6 or higher.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable WP Statistics Plugin
allTemporarily deactivate the plugin to prevent exploitation while planning an update.
wp plugin deactivate wp-statistics
Restrict Admin Access
linuxLimit access to statistics pages to trusted IP addresses using web server rules.
# Apache: Require ip 192.168.1.0/24
# Nginx: allow 192.168.1.0/24; deny all;
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with XSS protection rules to block malicious payloads.
- Monitor administrator account activity for unusual behavior and implement multi-factor authentication.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check the WP Statistics plugin version in WordPress admin under Plugins > Installed Plugins. If version is 13.1.5 or lower, the site is vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin get wp-statistics --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
After updating, confirm the plugin version shows 13.1.6 or higher in the WordPress plugins list.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual IP addresses with script-like characters in WP Statistics logs
- Multiple failed login attempts following statistics page views
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests to statistics pages containing JavaScript in query parameters
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND "wp-statistics" AND ("<script" OR "javascript:" OR "onerror=" OR "onload=")🔗 References
- https://gist.github.com/Xib3rR4dAr/af90cef7867583ab2de4cccea2a8c87d
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=2679983%40wp-statistics&new=2679983%40wp-statistics&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=
- https://www.wordfence.com/vulnerability-advisories/#CVE-2022-25305
- https://gist.github.com/Xib3rR4dAr/af90cef7867583ab2de4cccea2a8c87d
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=2679983%40wp-statistics&new=2679983%40wp-statistics&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=
- https://www.wordfence.com/vulnerability-advisories/#CVE-2022-25305
