Overview
CVE-2025-4840 is a critical vulnerability discovered in the inprosysmedia-likes-dislikes-post WordPress plugin. This flaw allows unauthenticated users to perform SQL injection attacks, potentially compromising systems or leading to data leakage. This vulnerability is of high concern to WordPress site owners, especially those using the affected plugin, due to its high potential for misuse.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-4840
Severity: High (CVSS: 7.5)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise and data leakage
Affected Products
Product | Affected Versions
inprosysmedia-likes-dislikes-post WordPress Plugin | up to and including 1.0.0
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability stems from the affected plugin’s failure to properly sanitize and escape a parameter before using it in an SQL statement. This occurs via an AJAX action that is available to unauthenticated users. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by injecting malicious SQL code into the parameter, which can lead to unauthorized viewing, modification, or deletion of data in the database.
Conceptual Example Code
Here’s a conceptual example of how an attacker might exploit this vulnerability through a malicious HTTP POST request:
POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=inprosysmedia_likes_dislikes HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
payload=...'; DROP TABLE users; --In this example, the attacker sends a malicious SQL statement (`DROP TABLE users; –`) as part of the payload, which if executed, would delete the ‘users’ table from the database.
Mitigation Guidance
To mitigate this vulnerability, affected users should apply the vendor’s patch as soon as it becomes available. As a temporary solution, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can help detect and prevent SQL injection attacks.
