Today we saw what appeared to be a hacker probing for usage of the WordPress plugin Donate visa in third-party data we monitor. The probing was done by requesting a file from the plugin if the plugin had existed on a website, /wp-content/plugins/donate-visa/readme.txt. The plugin was closed on the WordPress Plugin Directory on November 5, 2024. The reason given for the closure is “Security Issue.” Nothing was provided to vet the claim there was a security issue. Competitors of ours have claimed there is an unfixed vulnerability that allows attackers “with Subscriber-level access and above, to perform an unauthorized action.” They provided nothing to back that up. Looking at the code, we found what they appear to be referring to, but as is so often the case, they didn’t bother to do proper vetting and got a basic detail wrong. The real vulnerability is one you would expect to be exploited.

The only code that looks like it could be related to the claimed vulnerability is the code that handles saving the plugin’s settings. That is handled by the function donate_visa_dvsmp_ajax() in the file /includes/class-donate-visa-dvsmp-plugin.php. That doesn’t include any security checks: [Read more]