CVE-2025-24622 Overview
CVE-2025-24622 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting the PickPlugins Job Board Manager plugin for WordPress. The flaw impacts all plugin versions from initial release through 2.1.59. An attacker can trick an authenticated user into submitting a forged request that performs unintended state-changing actions within the plugin. Exploitation requires user interaction, typically by luring a logged-in administrator or privileged user to a malicious page. The vulnerability is tracked under CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery.
Critical Impact
Successful exploitation allows attackers to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated WordPress users, potentially altering job board content, settings, or listings without consent.
Affected Products
- PickPlugins Job Board Manager plugin for WordPress
- Job Board Manager versions from initial release through 2.1.59
- WordPress sites running the vulnerable job-board-manager plugin
Discovery Timeline
- 2025-01-24 - CVE-2025-24622 published to NVD
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2025-24622
Vulnerability Analysis
The vulnerability stems from missing or insufficient CSRF protections in state-changing operations exposed by the Job Board Manager plugin. WordPress provides a nonce mechanism (wp_nonce_field, check_admin_referer, wp_verify_nonce) to defend against forged requests. When plugin endpoints do not validate a valid nonce or referer header, attackers can craft external HTML or JavaScript that submits requests using the victim's active session cookies.
Because the request originates from the victim's browser, the WordPress backend processes it as legitimate. The plugin performs the requested action using the victim's privileges, without confirming user intent. The impact is scoped by the victim's role, but administrative users represent the highest-value target.
Root Cause
The root cause is the absence of proper anti-CSRF token validation on one or more request handlers within the job-board-manager plugin through version 2.1.59. Actions that modify plugin state should require both authentication and a per-request nonce tied to the user session. When these checks are missing, any authenticated browsing session becomes a viable execution context for attacker-controlled requests.
Attack Vector
An attacker hosts a page containing an auto-submitting form or XMLHttpRequest targeting a vulnerable Job Board Manager endpoint. The attacker then lures an authenticated WordPress user to visit that page through phishing, malvertising, or a comment link. When the browser issues the request, WordPress attaches the user's session cookies, and the plugin executes the action. See the Patchstack WordPress Vulnerability Report for additional technical context. No public proof-of-concept exploit code has been released.
Detection Methods for CVE-2025-24622
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected changes to Job Board Manager settings, job listings, or applications with no corresponding admin activity in audit logs.
- WordPress access log entries showing POST requests to job-board-manager endpoints with external Referer headers.
- Administrator sessions producing state-changing requests shortly after visiting untrusted external URLs.
Detection Strategies
- Review WordPress access logs for POST requests to plugin action handlers where the Referer header does not match the site's own domain.
- Enable and monitor WordPress audit logging plugins to correlate content or setting changes with the initiating user and session.
- Inspect the installed job-board-manager plugin version against the vulnerable range (<= 2.1.59) across all WordPress instances.
Monitoring Recommendations
- Alert on administrative actions performed immediately after off-domain referrers appear in the request chain.
- Track plugin inventory and version drift across WordPress environments to identify unpatched deployments.
- Monitor for anomalous outbound requests from admin browsers that could indicate CSRF lure delivery.
How to Mitigate CVE-2025-24622
Immediate Actions Required
- Identify all WordPress sites running the PickPlugins Job Board Manager plugin at version 2.1.59 or earlier.
- Update the plugin to a fixed release once published by the vendor, or disable the plugin if no patch is yet available.
- Require administrators to log out of WordPress before browsing untrusted sites, and enforce short session lifetimes.
Patch Information
At the time of publication, CVE-2025-24622 affects Job Board Manager through version 2.1.59. Administrators should consult the Patchstack advisory and the plugin's WordPress.org page for updated versions. Apply the vendor-supplied patch as soon as it becomes available and validate that anti-CSRF tokens are enforced on all plugin endpoints.
Workarounds
- Deactivate and remove the Job Board Manager plugin until a patched version is installed.
- Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule that blocks POST requests to job-board-manager endpoints missing a same-origin Referer or Origin header.
- Restrict administrative access to trusted IP ranges and enforce multi-factor authentication to reduce the exposed attack surface.
# Example: WordPress WP-CLI check for vulnerable plugin version
wp plugin get job-board-manager --field=version
# Deactivate the plugin until a patch is available
wp plugin deactivate job-board-manager
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
