CVE-2023-50854 is a high-severity SQL Injection vulnerability (CWE-89) identified in the Squirrly SEO - Advanced Pack plugin. This vulnerability arises from improper neutralization of special elements used in SQL commands, allowing an attacker with high privileges to inject malicious SQL code. The vulnerability affects versions prior to 2.4.02, although the exact affected versions are not explicitly listed. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 7.6, indicating a high severity level. The vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:L shows that the attack can be performed remotely over the network (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L), but requires high privileges (PR:H) and no user interaction (UI:N). The scope is changed (S:C), meaning the vulnerability can affect resources beyond the initially vulnerable component. The impact is high on confidentiality (C:H), no impact on integrity (I:N), and low impact on availability (A:L). This suggests that an attacker with elevated privileges could exploit this flaw to extract sensitive data from the backend database without modifying data or causing significant service disruption. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches or fixes have been linked yet. The vulnerability was published on December 28, 2023, and assigned by Patchstack. The Squirrly SEO - Advanced Pack is a WordPress plugin used for search engine optimization, which is widely used by websites to improve their SEO performance.

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability can be significant, especially for those relying on WordPress websites using the Squirrly SEO - Advanced Pack plugin. Exploitation could lead to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive data stored in the backend database, including potentially customer information, business intelligence, or configuration details. Given the high confidentiality impact, data breaches could result in GDPR violations, leading to regulatory fines and reputational damage. Although the vulnerability requires high privileges, if an attacker compromises an administrative account or leverages other vulnerabilities to escalate privileges, they could exploit this SQL injection to extract data. The low availability impact means service disruption is unlikely, but data confidentiality loss is the primary concern. This could affect e-commerce platforms, corporate websites, and digital marketing agencies across Europe that use this plugin. The absence of known exploits in the wild provides a window for mitigation before active exploitation occurs.

European organizations should immediately audit their WordPress installations to identify if the Squirrly SEO - Advanced Pack plugin is installed and determine the version in use. Until an official patch is released, organizations should consider the following specific mitigations: 1) Restrict administrative access to trusted personnel only and enforce strong authentication mechanisms such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce the risk of privilege escalation. 2) Employ Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block SQL injection patterns targeting this plugin. 3) Conduct thorough code reviews and consider temporarily disabling or uninstalling the plugin if it is not critical to business operations. 4) Monitor logs for unusual database queries or access patterns that could indicate exploitation attempts. 5) Prepare for rapid patch deployment once a fix becomes available by subscribing to vendor or security mailing lists. 6) Implement database least privilege principles, ensuring the WordPress database user has only necessary permissions to limit the impact of SQL injection. These measures go beyond generic advice by focusing on privilege management, monitoring, and proactive plugin management tailored to this vulnerability.