Countdown & Clock <= 2.8.8 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Remote Code Execution
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.8.9
- Affected Plugin
- Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance – Countdown & Clock
- Affected Version
<= 2.8.8- CVSS
- 8.8High
- Weakness type
- CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
- CVE
CVE-2025-30841
At a glance
CVE-2025-30841 is a high-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.8.8. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Contributor level or above. The issue is fixed in version 2.8.9; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2025, reported by astra.r3verii.
Vulnerability Overview
The Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance – Countdown & Clock plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution in all versions up to, and including, 2.8.8. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to execute code on the server.
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, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
Reaching this weakness in Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance <= 2.8.8 takes an account at Contributor level or above. Code injection means input from a request reaches a language construct that evaluates code, so the attacker's text is executed rather than treated as data.
The injected code runs with the web server's privileges, giving the attacker the same access to the database and filesystem as WordPress itself. For Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance the fix is 2.8.9: builds <= 2.8.8 are affected, anything from 2.8.9 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.8.9, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
An attacker needs Contributor 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. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance 2.8.9 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Scanner
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance – Countdown & Clock
- 8.1CVE-2025-2270: Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance Limited LFI
CVE-2025-2270 - 6.1CVE-2022-29421: Countdown & Clock <= 2.3.2 Reflected XSS
CVE-2022-29421 - 6.1CVE-2022-0601: Countdown & Clock <= 2.2.8 Reflected XSS
CVE-2022-0601 - 5.5Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance – Countdown & Clock <= 2.3.9.5 XSS
- 5.5CVE-2022-29420: Countdown & Clock <= 2.3.2 Stored Cross-Site Scripting
CVE-2022-29420 - 5.4CVE-2024-2017: Countdown Authenticated (Subscriber+) PHP Object
CVE-2024-2017 - 4.8CVE-2022-29422: Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance XSS
CVE-2022-29422 - 4.4CVE-2024-50516: Countdown, Coming Soon, Maintenance Stored XSS
CVE-2024-50516
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