CVE-2023-5652
📋 TL;DR
CVE-2023-5652 is a critical SQL injection vulnerability in the WP Hotel Booking WordPress plugin. Unauthenticated attackers can exploit missing authorization and input sanitization to execute arbitrary SQL commands. All WordPress sites using vulnerable versions of this plugin are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- WP Hotel Booking WordPress Plugin
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete database compromise leading to data theft, privilege escalation, remote code execution, and full site takeover.
Likely Case
Database extraction of sensitive information including user credentials, payment data, and administrative access.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper WAF rules, database permissions, and network segmentation in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation is straightforward due to missing authentication checks and simple SQL injection vector.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 2.0.8
Vendor Advisory: https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/8ea46b9a-5239-476b-949d-49546371eac1
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins. 3. Find WP Hotel Booking plugin. 4. Click 'Update Now' if available. 5. Alternatively, download version 2.0.8+ from WordPress repository and manually update.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Temporary Plugin Deactivation
allDisable the vulnerable plugin until patched
wp plugin deactivate wp-hotel-booking
WAF Rule Implementation
allBlock SQL injection attempts targeting admin_init hooks
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict network access controls to limit plugin exposure
- Enable database query logging and monitoring for suspicious SQL patterns
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check plugin version in WordPress admin under Plugins → Installed PluginsCheck Version:
wp plugin get wp-hotel-booking --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm WP Hotel Booking plugin version is 2.0.8 or higher📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual SQL queries in database logs
- Multiple failed admin_init requests from single IP
- POST requests to wp-admin with SQL patterns
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing SQL injection payloads targeting admin endpoints
- Unusual traffic patterns to /wp-admin/admin-post.php
SIEM Query:
source="web_logs" AND (uri_path="/wp-admin/admin-post.php" OR uri_path="/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php") AND (http_method="POST") AND (user_agent CONTAINS "sqlmap" OR request_body MATCHES "(?i)(union|select|insert|update|delete|drop|exec)")