CVE-2025-14770: WordPress Shipping Rate SQLi Vulnerability

CVE-2025-14770 Overview

The Shipping Rate By Cities plugin for WordPress contains a SQL Injection vulnerability in the city parameter affecting all versions up to and including 2.0.0. The vulnerability exists due to insufficient escaping on the user-supplied parameter and lack of sufficient preparation on the existing SQL query. This allows unauthenticated attackers to append additional SQL queries into already existing queries, enabling extraction of sensitive information from the database.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this SQL Injection vulnerability to extract sensitive data from the WordPress database, potentially compromising user credentials, personal information, and other confidential data stored within the affected site.

Affected Products

• Shipping Rate By Cities WordPress Plugin versions up to and including 2.0.0
• WordPress installations using vulnerable plugin versions
• WooCommerce sites utilizing the affected shipping plugin

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-01-14 - CVE-2025-14770 published to NVD
• 2026-01-14 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-14770

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL Injection vulnerability (CWE-89) stems from improper handling of user input in the city parameter within the Shipping Rate By Cities WordPress plugin. The vulnerable code path allows attackers to inject malicious SQL statements that get executed against the database without proper sanitization or parameterized queries.

The attack can be executed remotely over the network without any authentication requirements or user interaction. Since the vulnerability only affects confidentiality (data extraction), it enables attackers to read arbitrary database contents but does not directly allow modification or denial of service.

WordPress plugins that handle shipping calculations often process user-supplied location data to determine rates. In this case, the city parameter is directly incorporated into SQL queries without adequate escaping or the use of prepared statements, which is a fundamental security practice for preventing injection attacks.

Root Cause

The root cause is insufficient input sanitization and the absence of prepared statements (parameterized queries) when processing the city parameter. The vulnerable code in shiprate-cities-method-class.php at line 372 directly concatenates user input into SQL queries, allowing malicious payloads to be interpreted as SQL commands. Proper use of WordPress's $wpdb->prepare() function would prevent this vulnerability by separating SQL logic from data.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based, requiring no authentication or privileges. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests containing SQL injection payloads in the city parameter. These payloads can utilize techniques such as UNION-based injection, boolean-based blind injection, or time-based blind injection to enumerate and extract database contents.

The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it can be exploited without any user interaction and targets a commonly used e-commerce plugin. Attackers could potentially extract WordPress user tables, customer information, order details, and other sensitive data stored in the database.

For technical details on the vulnerable code, refer to the WordPress Plugin Code Review.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-14770

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual database query patterns containing SQL injection signatures such as UNION SELECT, OR 1=1, or time-based payloads
• Web server logs showing requests with encoded SQL characters in the city parameter
• Unexpected database access patterns or queries attempting to access system tables like wp_users
• Error messages in logs indicating SQL syntax errors from malformed injection attempts

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules specifically targeting SQL injection patterns in shipping-related endpoints
• Implement database activity monitoring to detect anomalous queries targeting sensitive tables
• Configure intrusion detection systems to alert on SQL injection attack signatures in HTTP traffic
• Review access logs for requests to WooCommerce shipping calculation endpoints with suspicious parameter values

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed WordPress debug logging to capture database query errors that may indicate exploitation attempts
• Monitor for spikes in database read operations, particularly on user and order tables
• Implement real-time alerting for any SQL syntax errors originating from the shipping plugin
• Configure SentinelOne to monitor file integrity and process behavior on WordPress installations

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-14770

Immediate Actions Required

• Update the Shipping Rate By Cities plugin to a patched version immediately if available
• If no patch is available, deactivate and remove the Shipping Rate By Cities plugin until a fix is released
• Implement a Web Application Firewall with SQL injection protection rules
• Review database logs for signs of prior exploitation and consider credential rotation if compromise is suspected

Patch Information

Monitor the Wordfence Security Vulnerability Report for patch availability and updated plugin versions. Check the WordPress plugin repository for the latest secure release of Shipping Rate By Cities. Until a patch is applied, the plugin should be disabled on production sites.

Workarounds

• Disable the Shipping Rate By Cities plugin until a security patch is available
• Implement WAF rules to block requests containing SQL injection patterns in the city parameter
• Restrict database user privileges to minimize the impact of potential data extraction
• Consider using an alternative shipping rate plugin that has been recently audited for security

# Configuration example - WordPress WAF rule for SQL injection protection
# Add to .htaccess or web server configuration
# Block common SQL injection patterns in query strings
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (\%27|\'|union|select|insert|drop|delete|update|concat|char|declare) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]