CVE-2025-11172
📋 TL;DR
The Check Plagiarism WordPress plugin has an authorization vulnerability that allows authenticated users with Subscriber-level permissions or higher to modify the plugin's API key. This affects all WordPress sites running plugin versions 2.0 and earlier. Attackers could disrupt plagiarism checking functionality or potentially abuse the API key.
💻 Affected Systems
- WordPress Check Plagiarism plugin
⚠️ Manual Verification Required
This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.
Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).
🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.
- Review the CVE details at NVD
- Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
- Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
- Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
An attacker could replace the legitimate API key with a malicious one, enabling them to intercept or manipulate plagiarism check results, potentially leading to data leakage or service disruption.
Likely Case
Malicious users with basic accounts could change the API key, causing the plagiarism checking service to stop working properly until the legitimate key is restored.
If Mitigated
With proper access controls and monitoring, the impact is limited to temporary service disruption that can be quickly detected and remediated.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated access but only at Subscriber level, which is the lowest WordPress user role.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Version after 2.0
Vendor Advisory: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/check-plagiarism/trunk/index.php#L760
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins. 3. Find 'Check Plagiarism' plugin. 4. Click 'Update Now' if available, or delete and reinstall latest version. 5. Verify plugin is updated to version after 2.0.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Remove vulnerable plugin
WordPressTemporarily disable or remove the Check Plagiarism plugin until patched version is available
wp plugin deactivate check-plagiarism
wp plugin delete check-plagiarism
Restrict user registration
WordPressDisable new user registration to prevent attackers from obtaining Subscriber accounts
Update WordPress Settings → General → Membership to 'Anyone can register' = unchecked
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Remove the Check Plagiarism plugin completely from your WordPress installation
- Implement strict monitoring of user accounts and API key changes in the plugin settings
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin → Plugins → Installed Plugins → Check Plagiarism version. If version is 2.0 or lower, you are vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin get check-plagiarism --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
After updating, verify the plugin version is higher than 2.0 in WordPress admin panel.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unauthorized API key modification attempts in WordPress logs
- User role changes or suspicious Subscriber account activity
Network Indicators:
- Unusual API calls to plagiarism checking services from unexpected sources
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress" AND (plugin="check-plagiarism" OR action="chk_plag_mine_plugin_wpse10500_admin_action")