CVE-2025-46241
📋 TL;DR
A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Appointment Booking Calendar WordPress plugin allows attackers to trick authenticated administrators into performing unintended SQL injection attacks. This affects WordPress sites using Appointment Booking Calendar versions up to 1.3.92. The vulnerability combines CSRF with SQL injection, potentially allowing data theft or manipulation.
💻 Affected Systems
- Appointment Booking Calendar WordPress Plugin
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers could steal sensitive database information (user credentials, appointment data), modify or delete database contents, or potentially gain administrative access to the WordPress site through SQL injection payloads.
Likely Case
Attackers would steal appointment data, user information, or inject malicious content into the database by tricking administrators into clicking malicious links while authenticated.
If Mitigated
With proper CSRF protections and input validation, the SQL injection would be prevented even if CSRF occurs.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires tricking an authenticated administrator into clicking a malicious link. The SQL injection occurs through the CSRF request.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 1.3.93 or later
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins. 3. Find 'Appointment Booking Calendar'. 4. Click 'Update Now' if available. 5. Alternatively, download version 1.3.93+ from WordPress repository and manually update.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Temporary Plugin Deactivation
allDisable the vulnerable plugin until patched
wp plugin deactivate appointment-booking-calendar
CSRF Protection Implementation
allAdd CSRF tokens to plugin forms via custom code or security plugin
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict input validation and parameterized queries at application level
- Use web application firewall (WAF) rules to block SQL injection patterns and suspicious requests
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin → Plugins → Installed Plugins for Appointment Booking Calendar version. If version is 1.3.92 or lower, you are vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin get appointment-booking-calendar --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
Verify plugin version is 1.3.93 or higher in WordPress admin panel. Test booking functionality to ensure it works correctly.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual SQL queries in database logs
- Multiple failed login attempts followed by successful admin login
- Unexpected POST requests to plugin endpoints from unusual sources
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing SQL keywords (SELECT, UNION, etc.) to plugin endpoints
- Requests with suspicious parameters to /wp-content/plugins/appointment-booking-calendar/
SIEM Query:
source="web_server" AND (uri="*appointment-booking-calendar*" AND (method="POST" OR params="*sql*" OR params="*union*"))