CVE-2025-28941 in Spam Byebye Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 03/12/2025
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in ohtan Spam Byebye allows Cross Site Request Forgery. This issue affects Spam Byebye: from n/a through 2.2.4.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/12/2025
This Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerability exists within the ohtan Spam Byebye plugin for WordPress, representing a critical security flaw that enables malicious actors to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users. The vulnerability specifically affects versions ranging from the initial release through version 2.2.4, indicating a broad attack surface that could potentially impact numerous installations. The CSRF flaw stems from the absence of proper validation mechanisms for requests originating from external domains, allowing attackers to craft malicious requests that exploit the trust relationship between the user's browser and the vulnerable plugin.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability lies in the plugin's failure to implement anti-CSRF tokens or similar protection mechanisms within its administrative functions. When a user with administrative privileges accesses the plugin's interface, the application does not verify that requests are genuinely originating from the legitimate user interface rather than from a malicious third-party site. This oversight creates a pathway for attackers to manipulate the plugin's functionality through crafted requests that appear to come from the authenticated user's browser. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it operates at the application layer, targeting the web application's trust model rather than lower-level network protocols.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data manipulation to potentially enable complete administrative takeover of affected WordPress installations. An attacker could leverage this CSRF flaw to modify plugin settings, disable spam protection features, inject malicious code, or even delete critical data. The attack vector typically involves tricking an authenticated administrator into visiting a malicious website that automatically submits requests to the vulnerable plugin's endpoints. This scenario aligns with attack patterns documented in the ATT&CK framework under the privilege escalation and persistence categories, where adversaries exploit web application vulnerabilities to gain elevated privileges. The vulnerability's severity is amplified by the fact that administrators often have extensive privileges within WordPress systems, making successful exploitation potentially devastating.
Mitigation strategies should focus on immediate implementation of anti-CSRF token validation mechanisms within the plugin's administrative interfaces. The most effective approach involves generating unique, unpredictable tokens for each user session and validating these tokens on every state-changing request. Organizations should also implement Content Security Policy headers to prevent unauthorized script execution and consider implementing additional authentication layers such as two-factor authentication for administrative accounts. The vulnerability's classification aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerabilities, and represents a common weakness in web application security that has been extensively documented in security frameworks and best practices. Regular security audits and automated vulnerability scanning should be implemented to identify similar issues in other plugins and themes, as the attack surface for such vulnerabilities often extends beyond individual components to encompass entire web applications.