CVE-2025-24716: Herd Effects Plugin CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2025-24716 Overview

CVE-2025-24716 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability [CWE-352] in the Wow-Company Herd Effects WordPress plugin (mwp-herd-effect). The flaw affects all versions up to and including 6.2.1. An attacker can craft a malicious request that, when triggered by an authenticated administrator visiting an attacker-controlled page, modifies plugin settings without authorization. The vulnerability requires user interaction and stems from missing anti-CSRF token validation on state-changing requests.

Critical Impact
An attacker can alter Herd Effects plugin settings on a target WordPress site by tricking a logged-in administrator into visiting a crafted page, potentially leading to unauthorized configuration changes.

Affected Products

Wow-Company Herd Effects WordPress plugin (mwp-herd-effect)
All versions from n/a through 6.2.1
WordPress sites with the plugin installed and active

Discovery Timeline

2025-01-24 - CVE-2025-24716 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-24716

Vulnerability Analysis

The Herd Effects plugin exposes settings-modification endpoints that process state-changing requests without validating a CSRF nonce or equivalent anti-forgery token. WordPress provides wp_nonce_field() and check_admin_referer() primitives specifically to defend against this class of attack, but the affected plugin code paths do not enforce these checks on all sensitive actions through version 6.2.1.

Exploitation requires an authenticated WordPress administrator to interact with attacker-controlled content, such as clicking a link or loading a page containing a hidden form or image tag. The browser then submits the forged request with the administrator's active session cookies, and the plugin processes the request as legitimate.

The scope is limited to plugin settings rather than full site takeover. However, changed configuration can degrade site behavior, inject unwanted visual effects, or serve as a stepping stone in a broader attack chain.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing CSRF protection [CWE-352] on administrative request handlers within the mwp-herd-effect plugin. State-changing operations rely solely on cookie-based session authentication and do not verify a per-request token bound to the user session.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based and requires user interaction. An attacker hosts a page containing an auto-submitting HTML form or crafted request targeting the vulnerable plugin endpoint on the victim WordPress site. When a logged-in administrator visits that page, the browser attaches session cookies and submits the request, causing the plugin to apply attacker-supplied setting changes.

No authentication credentials are needed by the attacker directly. The attacker abuses the administrator's authenticated session. See the Patchstack advisory for reference details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-24716

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected changes to Herd Effects plugin settings in wp_options or plugin-specific option keys
WordPress access log entries showing POST requests to plugin admin endpoints with Referer headers pointing to external, untrusted domains
Administrator sessions producing settings updates immediately after visits to unfamiliar external URLs

Detection Strategies

Monitor WordPress audit logs for plugin configuration changes that lack a corresponding administrator session action in the wp-admin UI
Alert on POST requests to wp-admin/admin.php or admin-post.php targeting the mwp-herd-effect plugin where the Referer header is missing or off-site
Compare plugin option values against a known-good baseline on a scheduled interval

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable a WordPress activity log plugin to record option changes, user actions, and administrator page loads
Forward web server access logs to a centralized log platform and build queries filtering on plugin endpoints and cross-origin Referer values
Track outbound administrator browsing patterns where feasible to correlate CSRF triggers with configuration changes

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-24716

Immediate Actions Required

Update Herd Effects to a version later than 6.2.1 once the vendor publishes a patched release
If no patched version is available, deactivate and remove the mwp-herd-effect plugin from production WordPress sites
Force administrators to log out of active sessions and rotate authentication cookies after removal or update

Patch Information

At the time of the last NVD update, the advisory tracked by Patchstack lists all versions through 6.2.1 as affected. Administrators should consult the plugin listing on the WordPress plugin repository for the latest fixed version and changelog entries referencing CSRF or nonce handling.

Workarounds

Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule that blocks POST requests to mwp-herd-effect admin endpoints when the Referer header does not match the site origin
Restrict access to /wp-admin/ by IP allowlist so administrator sessions cannot be abused from arbitrary networks
Require administrators to use a dedicated browser profile for WordPress management to reduce exposure to cross-site request triggers

bash

# Example ModSecurity rule to block cross-origin POSTs to the plugin endpoint
SecRule REQUEST_METHOD "@streq POST" \
  "chain,id:1002471,phase:2,deny,status:403,msg:'CVE-2025-24716 CSRF block'"
  SecRule REQUEST_URI "@contains mwp-herd-effect" \
    "chain"
    SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:Referer "!@beginsWith https://your-site.example/" "t:none"