Overview
The cybersecurity landscape is constantly shifting, and recent findings highlight a significant vulnerability affecting the Metagauss ProfileGrid platform. This vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-47478, involves an Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command, more commonly known as SQL Injection. This vulnerability has implications for a host of users, as ProfileGrid is a popular and widely used plugin for creating user communities on WordPress websites. The potential system compromise or data leakage that could result from exploiting this vulnerability underscores the importance of immediate remediation measures.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-47478
Severity: High (8.5 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Potential system compromise, data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Metagauss ProfileGrid | Through 5.9.5.0
How the Exploit Works
This vulnerability stems from the application’s failure to properly sanitize user-supplied input in SQL queries. When malicious SQL statements are inserted into an input field, the application processes these statements as part of the SQL query. This allows an attacker to manipulate the query to expose, modify, or delete data in the database. The attacker could also potentially gain unauthorized access to the system.
Conceptual Example Code
Here is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. In this HTTP request, an attacker inserts malicious SQL commands into the input field, tricking the application into executing them.
POST /profilegrid/login HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
username=admin' OR '1'='1&password=admin' OR '1'='1In this example, the attacker attempts to log in with a username and password of “admin’ OR ‘1’=’1”. If the application does not properly sanitize its input, it may interpret this as a valid SQL query and log the attacker in as an administrator.
Mitigation and Remediation
Users of the affected versions of Metagauss ProfileGrid are advised to update to the latest version of the application, which includes a patch for this vulnerability. As a temporary mitigation, users could employ a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to detect and block SQL injection attempts. However, these measures are not a substitute for patching the vulnerability at its source.