CVE-2025-28862
📋 TL;DR
A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the WordPress Comment Date and Gravatar Remover plugin allows attackers to trick authenticated administrators into performing unintended actions. This affects all WordPress sites using the plugin version 1.0 or earlier. Attackers could modify plugin settings without the administrator's consent.
💻 Affected Systems
- WordPress Comment Date and Gravatar Remover plugin
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
An attacker could change plugin settings to disable security features, modify comment display behavior, or potentially chain with other vulnerabilities for further compromise.
Likely Case
Attackers could alter comment display settings, remove gravatars or dates against site policy, or cause minor site functionality disruption.
If Mitigated
With proper CSRF protections, no unauthorized actions can be performed even if an administrator visits a malicious page.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires tricking an authenticated administrator into clicking a malicious link or visiting a compromised page.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 1.0.1 or later
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins. 3. Find 'Comment Date and Gravatar Remover'. 4. Click 'Update Now' if available, or delete and reinstall latest version from WordPress repository.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement CSRF Protection
allAdd nonce verification to plugin forms manually if you cannot update immediately
Requires PHP code modification - not recommended for non-developers
Disable Plugin
linuxTemporarily disable the vulnerable plugin until patched
wp plugin deactivate comment-date-and-gravatar-remover
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict administrator access to trusted networks only
- Implement strict Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to limit script execution
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin panel > Plugins > Installed Plugins for 'Comment Date and Gravatar Remover' version 1.0 or earlierCheck Version:
wp plugin get comment-date-and-gravatar-remover --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
Verify plugin version is 1.0.1 or later in WordPress admin panel📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unexpected plugin setting changes in WordPress logs
- Multiple failed CSRF token validations
Network Indicators:
- POST requests to wp-admin/admin.php without proper referrer headers
- Suspicious redirects to plugin settings pages
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress" AND (plugin="comment-date-and-gravatar-remover" AND action="update")