{"id":82125,"date":"2025-10-07T21:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T21:38:11","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-21T01:27:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T07:27:01","slug":"cve-2020-36852-unauthenticated-database-wiping-vulnerability-in-wordpress-custom-searchable-data-entry-system-plugin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2020-36852-unauthenticated-database-wiping-vulnerability-in-wordpress-custom-searchable-data-entry-system-plugin\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2020-36852: Unauthenticated Database Wiping Vulnerability in WordPress Custom Searchable Data Entry System Plugin<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The cybersecurity community is constantly dealing with evolving threats and vulnerabilities, and CVE-2020-36852 is one such recent discovery. This vulnerability affects the Custom Searchable Data Entry System plugin for WordPress, a popular content management system used by millions of websites worldwide. What makes this vulnerability particularly dangerous is its potential for unauthenticated database wiping, which could <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-10534-critical-firefox-and-thunderbird-vulnerability-leading-to-possible-system-compromise-and-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89409\">lead to severe data loss or even a complete system compromise<\/a>.<br \/>\nAn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-25734-unauthenticated-efi-shell-vulnerability-in-kapsch-trafficcom-rsus\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90028\">unauthenticated attacker could leverage this vulnerability<\/a> to wipe out entire database tables, including critical ones like wp_users. As such, it&#8217;s imperative for users and system administrators of the affected WordPress plugin to understand the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-37123-high-severity-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-hpe-aruba-networking-edgeconnect-sd-wan-gateways\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89623\">severity of this vulnerability<\/a>, its potential impact, and the necessary steps to mitigate the risks associated with it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2020-36852<br \/>\nSeverity: Critical (CVSS score 9.1)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Network<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: None<br \/>\nImpact: Unauthenticated database wiping <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-10533-critical-vulnerability-in-firefox-and-thunderbird-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89375\">leading to potential system<\/a> compromise or data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1535480203\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>Custom Searchable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-9018-unauthorized-modification-and-data-loss-vulnerability-in-time-tracker-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90066\">Data Entry System Plugin<\/a> for WordPress | Up to and including 1.7.1<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The vulnerability stems from the lack of sufficient validation and a missing capability check on the ghazale_sds_delete_entries_table_row() function in the Custom Searchable Data Entry System <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-8565-unauthorized-access-and-arbitrary-plugin-installation-vulnerability-in-wp-legal-pages-wordpress-plugin\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90313\">plugin for WordPress<\/a>. This oversight makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to send a malicious payload that triggers the function and wipes database tables. The wp_users table, which contains crucial user information, can be completely wiped, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-55743-serious-vulnerability-in-unopim-allows-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89686\">potentially leading to a full system<\/a> compromise.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1589633483\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Below is a conceptual example of a malicious HTTP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-44594-server-side-request-forgery-ssrf-vulnerability-in-halo-v2-20-17\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89805\">request that could exploit this vulnerability<\/a>:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">POST \/wp-content\/plugins\/custom-searchable-data-entry-system\/ghazale_sds_delete_entries_table_row HTTP\/1.1\nHost: target.example.com\nContent-Type: application\/x-www-form-urlencoded\ntable=wp_users&amp;id=*<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>This example is a simple HTTP POST <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54256-cross-site-request-forgery-vulnerability-in-dreamweaver-desktop\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90510\">request that targets the vulnerable<\/a> function. The &#8216;table&#8217; parameter is set to &#8216;wp_users&#8217; and &#8216;id&#8217; parameter to &#8216;*&#8217;, indicating that all entries in the &#8216;wp_users&#8217; table should be deleted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Users of the affected plugin are advised to apply the vendor patch immediately, which fixes the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-55145-critical-missing-authorization-vulnerability-in-ivanti-products\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89302\">vulnerability by adding the missing<\/a> capability check and proper validation to the ghazale_sds_delete_entries_table_row() function. In the absence of a patch, users can employ temporary mitigation strategies such as using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to block malicious requests targeting the vulnerability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview The cybersecurity community is constantly dealing with evolving threats and vulnerabilities, and CVE-2020-36852 is one such recent discovery. This vulnerability affects the Custom Searchable Data Entry System plugin for WordPress, a popular content management system used by millions of websites worldwide. What makes this vulnerability particularly dangerous is its potential for unauthenticated database wiping, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-82125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82125"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83454,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82125\/revisions\/83454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82125"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=82125"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=82125"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=82125"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=82125"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=82125"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=82125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}