CVE-2025-32594

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-32594 is a critical information disclosure vulnerability affecting the WordPress plugin Simple WP Events by Wpminds, up to and including version 1.8.17. The plugin fails to properly sanitize or restrict sensitive data embedded in sent requests, allowing an unauthenticated attacker to retrieve embedded sensitive data from the server. This is classified as an Insertion of Sensitive Information Into Sent Data vulnerability (CWE-200). The CVSS v3.1 base score is 7.5 (High), with a vector of AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N, indicating network-based exploitation with no privileges required and no user interaction. No public proof-of-concept (PoC) or exploit code is currently available, and the vendor has not released a patch. The EPSS score is 0.0%, suggesting low exploitation activity at this time, but the risk remains significant due to the ease of exploitation and potential for data leakage.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability resides in a WordPress plugin distributed via the official WordPress plugin repository. As a supply chain risk, any site using Simple WP Events version <= 1.8.17 is affected. The plugin is not managed via NPM, PyPI, Go, or Ruby, but its inclusion in a WordPress site introduces a dependency risk. Site administrators must manually update or remove the plugin to mitigate the threat.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• Attack Vector (AV): Network (N) – Exploitable remotely over the network.
• Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L) – No special conditions required.
• Privileges Required (PR): None (N) – No authentication needed.
• User Interaction (UI): None (N) – No user action required.
• Scope (S): Unchanged (U) – Exploit does not affect other components.
• Confidentiality (C): High (H) – Sensitive data is fully exposed.
• Integrity (I): None (N) – No data modification.
• Availability (A): None (N) – No impact on availability.

Threat Level: High. The vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to extract embedded sensitive data (e.g., API keys, database credentials, internal paths) from the WordPress server. This can lead to further compromise, lateral movement, or data breaches.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability stems from the plugin's failure to properly sanitize or restrict sensitive information when constructing HTTP requests or responses. Specifically, the plugin may embed sensitive data (such as database credentials, API tokens, or internal file paths) into sent data (e.g., HTTP headers, query parameters, or response bodies) that are accessible to an attacker. This is a classic information disclosure flaw.

Root Cause: The plugin likely uses user-supplied input or internal data without proper filtering when generating output or making internal requests. For example, it might include a database password in a debug log, or expose a secret key in a JavaScript variable sent to the client.

Attack Vector: An attacker can send a crafted HTTP request to a vulnerable WordPress site (e.g., a specific endpoint or AJAX action) that triggers the plugin to include sensitive data in the response. Since no authentication is required, any unauthenticated user can exploit this.

Impact: Successful exploitation reveals sensitive information that can be used to escalate attacks, such as:

• Database credentials (username, password, host)
• WordPress authentication keys and salts
• API keys for third-party services
• Internal file paths revealing server structure
• Session tokens or other secrets

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no official patch is available, the following is a hypothetical comparison based on the vulnerability type.

Vulnerable Code (example):

// In a plugin function that returns data to the client
function get_event_data() {
    $event_id = $_GET['event_id'];
    $event = get_post($event_id);
    // Sensitive data is included in the response
    $response = array(
        'event_name' => $event->post_title,
        'db_password' => DB_PASSWORD, // Sensitive data exposed
        'api_key' => get_option('simple_wp_events_api_key')
    );
    wp_send_json($response);
}

Patched Code (hypothetical):

function get_event_data() {
    $event_id = intval($_GET['event_id']); // Input sanitization
    $event = get_post($event_id);
    // Only non-sensitive data is included
    $response = array(
        'event_name' => $event->post_title,
        'event_date' => get_post_meta($event_id, 'event_date', true)
    );
    wp_send_json($response);
}

The patch would remove any inclusion of sensitive constants, options, or internal variables from the response.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Attacker)

Prerequisites:

• A WordPress site with Simple WP Events plugin version <= 1.8.17 installed and activated.
• No authentication required.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Identify the vulnerable endpoint. Common endpoints for this plugin may include AJAX actions like simple_wp_events_get_data or REST API routes.
2. Send a crafted HTTP request to trigger the information disclosure. For example:

   GET /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=simple_wp_events_get_data&event_id=1 HTTP/1.1
   Host: target-site.com
   

3. Analyze the response for sensitive data (e.g., database passwords, API keys, file paths).
4. Use the extracted data for further attacks (e.g., database access, lateral movement).

Example cURL command:

curl -v "http://target-site.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=simple_wp_events_get_data&event_id=1"

Expected Output (sensitive data):

{
    "event_name": "Test Event",
    "db_password": "supersecret123",
    "api_key": "sk_live_abc123"
}

Blue Team (Defender)

Detection:

• Monitor for unusual requests to AJAX endpoints associated with Simple WP Events.
• Look for responses containing sensitive keywords like password, api_key, secret, or DB_.
• Use the detection rules provided below.

Mitigation:

• Immediately disable or remove the Simple WP Events plugin until a patch is available.
• If the plugin is critical, implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block requests to known vulnerable endpoints.
• Rotate any credentials or API keys that may have been exposed.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network IOCs:
  • HTTP requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action parameter containing simple_wp_events.
  • Responses containing patterns like "db_password", "api_key", or "secret".
• File IOCs:
  • Presence of the plugin directory /wp-content/plugins/simple-wp-events/.
  • Modified or suspicious log files in /wp-content/debug.log containing sensitive data.
• Behavioral IOCs:
  • Unauthorized database connections from external IPs.
  • Unexpected API calls to third-party services using exposed keys.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_32594_Simple_WP_Events_Info_Disclosure {
    meta:
        description = "Detects sensitive information disclosure in Simple WP Events plugin responses"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-17"
        cve = "CVE-2025-32594"
    strings:
        $sensitive1 = /"db_password"\s*:\s*"[^"]+"/ nocase
        $sensitive2 = /"api_key"\s*:\s*"[^"]+"/ nocase
        $sensitive3 = /"secret"\s*:\s*"[^"]+"/ nocase
        $plugin_ref = "simple_wp_events"
    condition:
        any of ($sensitive*) and $plugin_ref
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-32594 - Simple WP Events Sensitive Data Disclosure
id: 8a4b3c2d-1e5f-4a7b-9c8d-0e1f2a3b4c5d
status: experimental
description: Detects HTTP responses containing sensitive data from Simple WP Events plugin
author: Valters IT
date: 2025/04/17
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'GET'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'action=simple_wp_events'
        sc-status: 200
        response_body|contains:
            - 'db_password'
            - 'api_key'
            - 'secret'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate plugin functionality (if any)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2025-32594 - Simple WP Events Sensitive Data Disclosure"; flow:to_client,established; content:"simple_wp_events"; http_uri; content:"db_password"; http_server_body; nocase; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the plugin: Deactivate and delete the Simple WP Events plugin from all WordPress installations.
2. Rotate secrets: Change all database passwords, API keys, and WordPress authentication salts that may have been exposed.
3. Audit logs: Review server and application logs for signs of exploitation (e.g., unusual requests to AJAX endpoints).

Long-term Fix:

• The vendor (Wpminds) must release a patched version that removes sensitive data from sent responses. Until then, no fix is available.
• Consider replacing the plugin with an alternative that does not have this vulnerability.

Compensating Controls:

• Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action parameters containing simple_wp_events.
• Restrict access to AJAX endpoints using IP whitelisting or authentication where possible.
• Enable WordPress debug logging only temporarily and ensure logs are not publicly accessible.

Valters IT Signature: This report was generated by Valters IT DevSecOps AI. All information is based on available data and should be verified before action.