CVE-2025-13520
CSRF in MTCaptcha WordPress Plugin Allows Unauthorized Settings Change
Publication date: 2026-01-07
Last updated on: 2026-01-07
Assigner: Wordfence
Description
Description
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| mtcaptcha | mtcaptcha | to 2.7.2 (inc) |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-352 | The web application does not, or cannot, sufficiently verify whether a request was intentionally provided by the user who sent the request, which could have originated from an unauthorized actor. |
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?
This vulnerability is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) issue in the MTCaptcha WordPress Plugin up to version 2.7.2. It occurs because the plugin does not properly validate nonces when updating settings. As a result, an attacker can trick a site administrator into performing an action, such as clicking a malicious link, which allows the attacker to update plugin settings without authentication.
How can this vulnerability impact me? :
The vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to change the plugin settings, including sensitive information like the private key. This can compromise the security of the plugin and potentially the entire WordPress site by allowing unauthorized configuration changes.
What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?
To mitigate this vulnerability, immediately update the MTCaptcha WordPress Plugin to a version later than 2.7.2 where the nonce validation issue is fixed. Additionally, restrict administrative access and educate site administrators to avoid clicking on suspicious links that could trigger forged requests.
How can this vulnerability be detected on my network or system? Can you suggest some commands?
This vulnerability can be detected by checking if the MTCaptcha WordPress plugin is installed and its version is 2.7.2 or earlier. Since the vulnerability involves missing or incorrect nonce validation on the settings update functionality, detection involves verifying if unauthorized POST requests can update plugin settings without proper nonce tokens. You can detect attempts by monitoring HTTP POST requests to the WordPress admin settings page related to MTCaptcha plugin configuration. For example, you can use web server logs or network monitoring tools to look for POST requests to URLs like '/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=mtcaptcha' or similar paths. Commands to detect such activity could include using grep on web server logs: `grep 'POST /wp-admin/options-general.php?page=mtcaptcha' /var/log/apache2/access.log` or using tools like tcpdump or Wireshark to filter HTTP POST requests to the WordPress admin area. Additionally, checking the plugin version via WP-CLI can be done with: `wp plugin get mtcaptcha --field=version` to confirm if the vulnerable version is installed. [1]