CVE-2025-28856 in W3Counter Free Real-Time Web Stats Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 03/11/2025
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in dangrossman W3Counter Free Real-Time Web Stats allows Cross Site Request Forgery. This issue affects W3Counter Free Real-Time Web Stats: from n/a through 4.1.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/12/2025
The CVE-2025-28856 vulnerability represents a critical Cross-Site Request Forgery flaw within the dangrossman W3Counter Free Real-Time Web Stats application, a widely used web statistics tracking tool that has been identified as susceptible to this particular security weakness. This CSRF vulnerability exists within the application's authentication and session management mechanisms, specifically in how the system handles user requests and validates the origin of incoming HTTP requests. The flaw allows malicious actors to execute unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users who visit compromised web pages, potentially leading to unauthorized data modification, account takeovers, or other harmful operations within the affected system.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF tokens or validation mechanisms within the application's request processing pipeline. When users interact with the W3Counter application, particularly when performing administrative actions or modifying configuration settings, the system fails to validate that requests originate from legitimate sources within the application itself. This weakness creates a scenario where an attacker can craft malicious web pages that automatically submit requests to the vulnerable W3Counter instance, exploiting the user's existing authenticated session to perform unauthorized operations without their knowledge or consent. The vulnerability affects all versions from the initial release through version 4.1, indicating that this flaw has persisted across multiple iterations of the software without proper remediation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data integrity concerns, as it provides attackers with a pathway to compromise the web statistics tracking environment and potentially gain deeper access to the underlying web infrastructure. An attacker could leverage this CSRF vulnerability to modify tracking configurations, disable monitoring capabilities, inject malicious data into the statistics system, or even redirect traffic to malicious endpoints. The vulnerability is particularly concerning for organizations that rely on W3Counter for critical web analytics and monitoring, as it could go undetected for extended periods while malicious activities continue to occur through the compromised authentication system. Additionally, the flaw may enable attackers to escalate privileges or access sensitive information that the application tracks, potentially exposing user behavior patterns and website traffic data to unauthorized parties.
Organizations utilizing W3Counter Free Real-Time Web Stats should implement immediate mitigations to address this vulnerability, including the deployment of anti-CSRF tokens in all state-changing requests, implementation of proper referer header validation, and consideration of SameSite cookie attributes to prevent cross-site request forgery. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in web applications, and represents a common attack vector that appears frequently in web application security assessments. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability falls under the T1566.001 technique category related to spearphishing with links, as attackers can craft malicious pages that exploit this weakness. System administrators should also consider implementing web application firewalls, monitoring for suspicious request patterns, and conducting thorough security assessments of all web applications to identify similar CSRF vulnerabilities that may exist in other components of their digital infrastructure.