CVE-2026-97317 in Giveaways and Contests by RafflePress Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 10/02/2026
The Giveaways and Contests by RafflePress WordPress plugin before 1.12.27 does not remove the reCAPTCHA secret key from the giveaway settings it embeds in public giveaway pages, allowing unauthenticated visitors to retrieve the secret key of any active giveaway that has reCAPTCHA configured.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/02/2026
The vulnerability identified within Giveaways and Contests by RafflePress versions prior to 1.12.27 represents a critical information disclosure flaw rooted in improper handling of sensitive configuration data during frontend rendering processes. This issue specifically affects the plugin's integration with Google reCAPTCHA, a widely used service for distinguishing human users from automated bots. When administrators configure giveaways or contests using this plugin, they are required to input both public and secret keys provided by Google to enable CAPTCHA protection on submission forms. The security failure occurs because the application logic fails to sanitize these credentials before embedding them into the HTML source code of publicly accessible giveaway pages. Consequently, while the intent is likely to support client-side validation or specific JavaScript-based interactions, the implementation inadvertently exposes the server-side secret key in a manner that is directly retrievable by any unauthenticated visitor browsing the site.
From a technical perspective, this flaw constitutes an instance of CWE-209: Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information and CWE-359: Exposure of Private Key to Unintended Actors. The root cause lies in the lack of proper separation between client-side requirements and server-side secrets. In secure architectures, secret keys used for verifying CAPTCHA responses on the backend should never be transmitted to or embedded within the public-facing HTML document. Instead, they must remain strictly within the server environment where API calls are made after form submission. By embedding this key in the page source, the plugin violates fundamental principles of least privilege and data minimization, effectively turning a security control into an attack vector that bypasses authentication requirements entirely.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant due to the nature of reCAPTCHA secret keys. These keys are not merely identifiers but serve as cryptographic credentials that allow the holder to verify CAPTCHA tokens against Google's servers. An attacker who retrieves this key can perform offline analysis or use it in conjunction with other tools to automate interactions with the vulnerable site more effectively than standard bots, although the primary risk here is often associated with credential stuffing or abuse of API quotas if the key allows for broader access depending on how it was generated. More critically, possession of a valid secret key enables an attacker to potentially bypass CAPTCHA protections in custom scripts by generating valid tokens locally using known algorithms and the stolen key, thereby facilitating automated submissions that would otherwise be blocked. This undermines the integrity of contests, giveaways, and user registration forms protected by this mechanism, leading to potential fraud, spam accumulation, or manipulation of contest outcomes through bot-driven participation.
Furthermore, this vulnerability aligns with MITRE ATT&CK technique T1078: Valid Accounts when considering that while no account is stolen per se, the secret key acts as a valid credential for authentication services provided by third-party APIs like Google reCAPTCHA. It also relates to T1539: Steal Web Session Cookie in terms of data exfiltration methodology, where sensitive configuration details are extracted from web application responses without triggering alerts or requiring user interaction beyond simple page viewing. The exposure allows attackers to gather intelligence about the security posture of the target organization, potentially informing further exploitation attempts against other systems that might share similar configurations or dependencies on Google services.
Mitigation for this vulnerability requires immediate action by website administrators and plugin developers. For users currently running affected versions, the most effective remediation is to upgrade Giveaways and Contests by RafflePress to version 1.12.27 or later, where the code has been patched to ensure that secret keys are not embedded in public-facing HTML sources. If upgrading is not immediately feasible, administrators should manually review the source code of affected pages using browser developer tools to confirm if the key is visible and consider implementing a Web Application Firewall rule to mask such patterns temporarily until an update can be applied. Additionally, it is recommended that organizations rotate any exposed reCAPTCHA secret keys through their Google Cloud Console dashboard to invalidate the compromised credentials, ensuring that even if attackers have captured the old key, they cannot use it for future verification attempts. Regular security audits and code reviews focusing on data sanitization practices are essential to prevent similar information disclosure flaws in WordPress plugins and other web applications.