# CVE-2021-25042: WP Visitor Statistics (Real Time Traffic) < 5.5 - Arbitrary IP Address Exclusion to Stored XSS

> Authenticated users or CSRF attacks can inject malicious scripts via IP exclusion settings, leading to stored XSS against admins.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 28 Feb 2022
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-6wm6-vgw4-6ghw

## What is CVE-2021-25042?

CVE-2021-25042 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in Unknown WP Visitor Statistics (Real Time Traffic), published on 28 Feb 2022. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

The WP Visitor Statistics (Real Time Traffic) WordPress plugin before 5.5 does not have authorisation and CSRF checks in the updateIpAddress AJAX action, allowing any authenticated user to call it, or make a logged in user do it via a CSRF attack and add an arbitrary IP address to exclude. Furthermore, due to the lack of validation, sanitisation and escaping, users could set a malicious value and perform Cross-Site Scripting attacks against logged in admin

Weakness: CWE-862 (Missing Authorization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-25042?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Codepress Visitor Statistics.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-25042?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-25042 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-25042 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-25042 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Unknown WP Visitor Statistics (Real Time Traffic)

- [CVE-2023-0600](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-0600/): WP Visitor Statistics (Real Time Traffic) < 6.9 - Unauthenticated SQLi (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2022-33965](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-33965/): WordPress WP Visitor Statistics plugin <= 5.7 - Multiple Unauthenticated SQL Injection (SQLi) vulnerabilities (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2022-0410](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0410/): WP Visitor Statistics (Real Time Traffic) < 5.6 - Subscriber+ SQL Injection (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2021-24750](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-24750/): WP Visitor Statistics (Real Time Traffic) < 4.8 - Subscriber+ SQL Injection (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2022-4656](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-4656/): WP Visitor Statistics (Real Time Traffic) < 6.5 - Contributor+ Stored XSS via Shortcode (medium 5.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-25042 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-25042 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in Unknown WP Visitor Statistics (Real Time Traffic), published on 28 Feb 2022. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-25042 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Unknown WP Visitor Statistics (Real Time Traffic). No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25042/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25042/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-25042
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-25042
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-25042

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25042/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.