CVE-2025-22693

Contest Gallery <= 25.1.0 - Authenticated (Author+) SQL Injection

2025-01-31 00:00
Trương Hữu Phúc (truonghuuphuc)

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 25.1.2
Affected Plugin
Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe
Affected Version
<= 25.1.0
CVSS
6.5Medium
Weakness type
CWE-89 · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')
CVE
CVE-2025-22693
View all Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2025-22693 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') vulnerability in the Contest Gallery WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 25.1.0. It carries a CVSS score of 6.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Author level or above. The issue is fixed in version 25.1.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2025, reported by Trương Hữu Phúc (truonghuuphuc).

Vulnerability Overview

The Contest Gallery plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to SQL Injection in versions up to, and including, 25.1.0 due to insufficient escaping on the user supplied parameter and lack of sufficient preparation on the existing SQL query. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with author-level access and above, to append additional SQL queries into already existing queries that can be used to extract sensitive information from the database.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality.

CWE-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')

Reaching this weakness in Contest Gallery <= 25.1.0 takes an account at Author level or above. SQL injection happens when request data is concatenated into a query instead of being bound as a parameter, letting an attacker change the structure of the statement rather than just its values.

A working injection can read any table the database user can see, which on a WordPress install means user records, password hashes and session or API secrets stored in options. For Contest Gallery the fix is 25.1.2: builds <= 25.1.0 are affected, anything from 25.1.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 25.1.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Author access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Contest Gallery 25.1.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-22693https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/1fb84512-82c3-4def-a11b-ba0b7d64c41fhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-22693

Related records

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