CVE-2017-18524 in football-pool Plugin
Summary
by MITRE
The football-pool plugin before 2.6.5 for WordPress has multiple XSS issues.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/16/2025
The CVE-2017-18524 vulnerability affects the football-pool WordPress plugin version 2.6.4 and earlier, representing a critical cross-site scripting vulnerability that exposes websites to potential exploitation. This plugin, designed for creating football/soccer pool competitions, contains multiple XSS flaws that allow attackers to inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users. The vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output escaping mechanisms within the plugin's codebase, particularly in how it handles user-supplied data in various administrative and frontend contexts.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the plugin's failure to properly sanitize and escape user inputs before rendering them in HTML contexts. Attackers can exploit these flaws by submitting malicious payloads through forms, parameters, or other input vectors that the plugin processes without adequate security measures. The XSS vulnerabilities typically occur when user-generated content containing script tags or other malicious code is stored and subsequently displayed to other users without proper sanitization. This allows attackers to execute arbitrary JavaScript in the victim's browser context, potentially leading to session hijacking, credential theft, or redirection to malicious sites. The vulnerability impacts both administrative interfaces and public-facing elements of the plugin, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited by both authenticated and unauthenticated users depending on the specific vector.
The operational impact of CVE-2017-18524 extends beyond simple script execution, as it can enable attackers to gain persistent access to compromised WordPress installations. Successful exploitation allows threat actors to manipulate the football-pool plugin functionality, potentially altering pool results, injecting malicious advertisements, or using the compromised site as a launchpad for further attacks against visitors. The vulnerability's presence in the plugin's core functionality means that any website utilizing the football-pool plugin is at risk, particularly those with active user communities or public-facing pool competitions. Organizations using affected versions face potential data breaches, reputational damage, and compliance violations, especially in environments where user privacy and data protection are regulated. The vulnerability also aligns with attack patterns documented in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the T1566 technique for initial access through exploitation of web application vulnerabilities, and T1059 for execution through script-based attacks.
Security mitigation for CVE-2017-18524 requires immediate patching of the football-pool plugin to version 2.6.5 or later, which contains the necessary fixes for the XSS vulnerabilities. System administrators should also implement additional protective measures including input validation at multiple layers, output encoding for all dynamic content, and regular security scanning of WordPress installations. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper security practices such as those outlined in the CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) catalog, specifically CWE-79 for cross-site scripting, and CWE-20 for improper input validation. Organizations should conduct thorough security audits of their WordPress plugins, maintain updated security monitoring tools, and implement web application firewalls to detect and prevent exploitation attempts. Regular security updates and patch management processes become critical to prevent similar vulnerabilities from being exploited in the future, as the vulnerability represents a common pattern of insufficient sanitization in web applications that can be addressed through proper defensive coding practices and security controls.