Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
Some WordPress plugins and themes bundled an older Freemius SDK that exposed sensitive or dangerous internal actions without proper permission and anti-CSRF checks. A site is mainly at risk if a plugin or theme includes Freemius before 2.4.3. Business impact is moderate: possible data exposure or unauthorized option changes, depending on what the installed plugin exposes.
Executive priority
Prioritize remediation during the next WordPress maintenance cycle, sooner for externally exposed business-critical sites. This is not evidenced as actively exploited in the bundle, but the broad SDK reuse raises inventory risk.
Technical view
Freemius SDK versions up to 2.4.2 lacked capability checks and nonce protection on _get_debug_log, _get_db_option, and _set_db_option. The CVE maps to CWE-862 and CVSS 6.3. The provided description says any WordPress plugin or theme running Freemius below 2.4.3 is vulnerable.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely on WordPress sites with plugins or themes bundling Freemius SDK below 2.4.3. The source bundle lists several products but marks them defaultStatus unaffected, so treat product-level impact as requiring inventory validation rather than assuming each listed product is vulnerable.
Exploitation context
The bundle does not show CISA KEV inclusion or a cited source confirming active exploitation. Public sources describe the vulnerability class and affected SDK versions, but do not prove current exploitation in the supplied evidence.
Researcher notes
The evidence supports SDK-level impact below 2.4.3, not definitive vulnerable status for every named plugin. The affected array is inconsistent because listed products show defaultStatus unaffected and version 0, so validation should focus on bundled SDK versions and vendor release history.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory WordPress plugins and themes that include Freemius SDK.
- Update affected plugins, themes, or embedded Freemius SDK to version 2.4.3 or later.
- Check each vendor advisory before assuming a bundled plugin is fixed.
- Restrict WordPress admin access to trusted accounts only.
- Review logs for unusual option reads, option writes, or debug-log access.
Validation and detection
- Confirm the installed Freemius SDK version in each plugin or theme package.
- Map each plugin/theme release to the bundled Freemius SDK version.
- Verify vulnerable functions are protected by capability checks and nonce validation.
- Run approved WordPress security scanning against the site inventory.
- Document exceptions where vendor status is unclear or unsupported.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-862: Authorization and privilege behavior lookup
Authorization weaknesses can support privilege escalation and valid-account review, depending on exploit path. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCredential and access behavior lookup
The CVE wording references authentication or credential exposure, so valid-account and credential-access review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupDatabase behavior lookup
The CVE wording references database injection or access, so collection and exfiltration review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupFile access behavior lookup
The CVE wording references file access or upload behavior, so file telemetry and web shell review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2022-4974 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 6.3 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L2.83.4Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
6.3MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/39fb0499-9ab4-4a2f-b0db-ece86bcf4d42?source=cveCVE reference
- https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/6dae6dca-7474-4008-9fe5-4c62b9f12d0aCVE reference
- https://freemius.com/blog/managing-security-issues-open-source-freemius-sdk-security-disclosure/CVE reference
- https://wpdirectory.net/search/01FWPVWA7BC5DYGZHNSZQ9QMN5CVE reference
- https://wpdirectory.net/search/01G02RSGMFS1TPT63FS16RWEYRCVE reference
- https://web.archive.org/web/20220225174410/https%3A//www.pluginvulnerabilities.com/2022/02/25/our-security-review-of-wordpress-plugin-found-freemius-library-still-contained-vulnerabilities-3-years-after-major-security-incident/CVE reference
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.