CVE-2025-28859
📋 TL;DR
This CSRF vulnerability in the WordPress Maintenance Notice plugin allows attackers to trick authenticated administrators into performing unintended actions. It affects all WordPress sites running Maintenance Notice plugin versions up to 1.0.5. The vulnerability enables attackers to modify plugin settings without the admin's knowledge.
💻 Affected Systems
- WordPress Maintenance Notice plugin
📦 What is this software?
Maintenance Notice by Codevibrant
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers could change maintenance mode settings, disable security features, or modify plugin configurations to facilitate further attacks.
Likely Case
Attackers modify maintenance notice settings to display malicious content or redirect users to phishing sites.
If Mitigated
With proper CSRF protections and user awareness, impact is limited to unsuccessful exploitation attempts.
🎯 Exploit Status
CSRF attacks require social engineering to trick authenticated users into clicking malicious links.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 1.0.6 or later
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel
2. Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins
3. Find Maintenance Notice plugin
4. Click 'Update Now' if available
5. If no update appears, download version 1.0.6+ from WordPress repository
6. Deactivate old version
7. Upload and activate new version
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement CSRF tokens manually
allAdd nonce verification to plugin forms
Requires PHP coding modifications to plugin files
Use security plugins
allInstall WordPress security plugins that add CSRF protection
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Deactivate the Maintenance Notice plugin entirely
- Implement strict access controls and educate administrators about CSRF risks
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin → Plugins → Maintenance Notice → Version numberCheck Version:
wp plugin list --name=maintenance-notice --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm version is 1.0.6 or higher in WordPress plugins list📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unexpected changes to maintenance_notice settings in WordPress database
- Multiple failed CSRF token validations
Network Indicators:
- POST requests to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php without proper referrer headers
- Suspicious external domains in referrer fields
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND "admin-ajax.php" AND "action=maintenance_notice" AND NOT referer="*your-domain*"