CVE-2025-52789
📋 TL;DR
A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Lewe ChordPress WordPress plugin allows attackers to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users, potentially leading to stored cross-site scripting (XSS). This affects all WordPress sites running Lewe ChordPress versions up to and including 3.9.7. Attackers can trick administrators into executing malicious actions that could compromise the site.
💻 Affected Systems
- Lewe ChordPress WordPress 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 trick an administrator into executing actions that inject persistent malicious scripts, leading to complete site takeover, data theft, or malware distribution to visitors.
Likely Case
Attackers create fake requests that trick logged-in users (especially administrators) into performing unintended actions like changing settings or injecting malicious content, leading to defacement or limited data exposure.
If Mitigated
With proper CSRF protections and input validation, the vulnerability would be blocked, preventing unauthorized actions and script injection.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires tricking an authenticated user (e.g., admin) to click a malicious link, but CSRF attacks are well-understood and easy to weaponize.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 3.9.8 or later
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins. 3. Find Lewe ChordPress and update to version 3.9.8 or later. 4. If update not available, deactivate and delete the plugin.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable Lewe ChordPress Plugin
allTemporarily deactivate the plugin to prevent exploitation until patched.
wp plugin deactivate chordpress
Implement CSRF Protection Headers
allAdd Content-Security-Policy or other headers to mitigate CSRF attacks site-wide.
Add to .htaccess: Header set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'"
Add to wp-config.php: define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true);
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Disable or remove the Lewe ChordPress plugin immediately.
- Implement strict input validation and output encoding in custom code to prevent XSS.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin > Plugins > Installed Plugins for Lewe ChordPress version. If version is 3.9.7 or lower, it is vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin list --name=chordpress --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
After update, confirm Lewe ChordPress version is 3.9.8 or higher in WordPress admin panel.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual POST requests to admin-ajax.php or plugin-specific endpoints from unexpected referrers.
- Log entries showing CSRF token failures or mismatches.
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests with missing or mismatched CSRF tokens to plugin endpoints.
- Suspicious referrer headers in requests to WordPress admin areas.
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND (uri_path="/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" OR uri_path CONTAINS "chordpress") AND http_method="POST" AND referrer NOT IN allowed_domains