CVE-2025-31911: Social Share And Social Locker SQLi Flaw

CVE-2025-31911 Overview

CVE-2025-31911 is a critical SQL Injection vulnerability affecting the Social Share And Social Locker WordPress plugin. This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to perform Blind SQL Injection attacks against vulnerable WordPress installations. The flaw stems from improper neutralization of special elements used in SQL commands (CWE-89), enabling malicious actors to extract sensitive data from the database without requiring any authentication or user interaction.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this Blind SQL Injection vulnerability to extract sensitive database contents including user credentials, personal information, and other confidential data stored in the WordPress database.

Affected Products

• Social Share And Social Locker WordPress Plugin version 1.4.2 and earlier
• WordPress installations running vulnerable versions of the arsocial plugin
• All deployments from initial release through version 1.4.2

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-04-03 - CVE-2025-31911 published to NVD
• 2025-04-07 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-31911

Vulnerability Analysis

This SQL Injection vulnerability exists due to insufficient input validation and sanitization within the Social Share And Social Locker plugin. The plugin fails to properly escape or parameterize user-supplied input before incorporating it into SQL queries, creating an entry point for Blind SQL Injection attacks.

Blind SQL Injection is particularly dangerous because attackers can systematically extract database contents even when error messages are suppressed. By observing differences in application behavior (time-based or boolean-based responses), attackers can infer information about the database structure and contents one character at a time.

The network-accessible nature of this vulnerability means that any WordPress site running the vulnerable plugin is exposed to remote exploitation without requiring authentication. The changed scope component indicates that successful exploitation could impact resources beyond the vulnerable component itself.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-31911 lies in improper input handling within the Social Share And Social Locker plugin. User-supplied data is concatenated directly into SQL queries without proper sanitization, prepared statements, or parameterized queries. This violates secure coding practices for database interactions and creates a classic SQL Injection attack surface.

WordPress provides built-in functions like $wpdb->prepare() for safe database queries, but this plugin appears to bypass these protections by constructing queries with unsanitized input directly.

Attack Vector

The attack vector for this vulnerability is network-based, requiring no authentication or user interaction. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests containing SQL injection payloads targeting vulnerable plugin endpoints. The Blind SQL Injection technique works by:

1. Sending crafted payloads that cause conditional database behavior
2. Observing response differences (timing delays or content changes)
3. Iteratively extracting data by inferring true/false conditions
4. Reconstructing sensitive information character-by-character

The vulnerability allows attackers to read confidential database contents with high impact to data confidentiality. For detailed technical information, refer to the Patchstack security advisory.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-31911

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual database query patterns or increased query execution times in MySQL/MariaDB logs
• HTTP requests containing SQL injection patterns such as SLEEP(), BENCHMARK(), WAITFOR DELAY, or boolean-based payloads
• Anomalous traffic to WordPress plugin endpoints associated with Social Share And Social Locker
• Unexpected data exfiltration or database access patterns in web application firewall logs

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block SQL injection patterns in HTTP requests
• Enable WordPress audit logging to monitor plugin-related database activities
• Configure intrusion detection systems to alert on common SQL injection signatures
• Review MySQL slow query logs for suspicious conditional queries or time-based injection attempts
• Monitor for requests with encoded SQL syntax targeting the arsocial plugin paths

Monitoring Recommendations

• Implement real-time log analysis for web server access logs focusing on plugin endpoints
• Set up alerting for database query anomalies including unusual INFORMATION_SCHEMA access
• Monitor outbound network connections from the database server for potential data exfiltration
• Enable WordPress security plugins with SQL injection detection capabilities

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-31911

Immediate Actions Required

• Immediately disable or remove the Social Share And Social Locker plugin from all WordPress installations
• Audit database access logs for evidence of exploitation attempts
• Review WordPress user accounts for unauthorized additions or privilege changes
• Consider resetting database credentials if exploitation is suspected
• Implement WAF rules to block SQL injection attempts as a temporary measure

Patch Information

As of the last NVD update on 2025-04-07, administrators should check for plugin updates beyond version 1.4.2. Consult the Patchstack vulnerability database for the latest remediation guidance and patch availability. If no patched version is available, consider using alternative plugins that provide similar functionality with active security maintenance.

Workarounds

• Remove or deactivate the Social Share And Social Locker plugin until a security patch is released
• Implement Web Application Firewall rules specifically targeting SQL injection patterns
• Use WordPress security plugins like Wordfence or Sucuri to add an additional protection layer
• Restrict database user privileges to minimum required permissions following the principle of least privilege
• Enable prepared statement enforcement at the database level where possible

# WordPress CLI command to deactivate the vulnerable plugin
wp plugin deactivate social-share-and-social-locker-arsocial --path=/var/www/html/wordpress

# Verify plugin is deactivated
wp plugin list --status=inactive --path=/var/www/html/wordpress | grep arsocial

# Optional: Remove the plugin entirely
wp plugin delete social-share-and-social-locker-arsocial --path=/var/www/html/wordpress