CVE-2021-25070

WP Block and Stop Bad Bots <= 6.88 - SQL Injection

2022-03-08 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 6.90
Affected Plugin: Block Bad Bots and Stop Bad Bots Crawlers and Spiders and Anti Spam Protection
Affected Version: < 6.88
CVSS: 9.8Critical
Weakness type: CWE-89 · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')
CVE: CVE-2021-25070

View all Block Bad Bots and Stop Bad Bots Crawlers and Spiders and Anti Spam Protection vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-25070 is a critical-severity Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') vulnerability in the Block Bad Bots and Stop Bad Bots Crawlers and Spiders and Anti Spam Protection WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 6.88. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 6.90; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2022, reported by Krzysztof Zając.

Vulnerability Overview

The Block Bad Bots WordPress plugin before 6.88 does not properly sanitise and escape the User Agent before using it in a SQL statement to record logs, leading to an SQL Injection issue

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 privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

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

Reaching this weakness in Block Bad Bots and Stop Bad Bots Crawlers and Spiders and Anti Spam Protection < 6.88 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. 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 Block Bad Bots and Stop Bad Bots Crawlers and Spiders and Anti Spam Protection the fix is 6.90: builds < 6.88 are affected, anything from 6.90 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 6.90, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Block Bad Bots and Stop Bad Bots Crawlers and Spiders and Anti Spam Protection: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Block Bad Bots and Stop Bad Bots Crawlers and Spiders and Anti Spam Protection 6.90 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-25070 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/64eb4bfe-09b4-43c7-9d7e-f14fc5edf3c1 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-25070

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Block Bad Bots and Stop Bad Bots Crawlers and Spiders and Anti Spam Protection

CVSS Vector

9.8

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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