The Lucky Draw Contests plugin for WordPress, developed by owais4377, suffers from a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-14462. This vulnerability exists in all versions up to and including 4.2 due to missing or incorrect nonce validation in the misc-settings.php file. Nonces in WordPress are security tokens used to verify that requests originate from legitimate users and not from forged sources. The absence or improper implementation of nonce checks allows an attacker to craft a malicious request that, when executed by an authenticated administrator (via clicking a link or visiting a malicious page), can update plugin settings without authorization. This attack vector requires no prior authentication by the attacker but does require user interaction by an administrator, making social engineering a key component of exploitation. The vulnerability impacts the integrity of the plugin’s configuration but does not directly compromise confidentiality or availability. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 4.3 (medium), reflecting the network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, but requiring user interaction and limited impact on integrity only. No patches or known exploits are currently available or reported in the wild, but the vulnerability is publicly disclosed and should be addressed promptly to prevent potential misuse.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to the integrity of WordPress sites using the Lucky Draw Contests plugin, which is often employed in marketing and promotional campaigns. Unauthorized changes to plugin settings could disrupt contest configurations, potentially leading to reputational damage, loss of customer trust, or manipulation of contest outcomes. While it does not directly expose sensitive data or cause service outages, altered settings could be leveraged as a foothold for further attacks or to degrade user experience. Organizations with high reliance on WordPress for customer engagement, especially in retail, hospitality, and event management sectors, may face operational disruptions. The requirement for administrator interaction means that phishing or social engineering campaigns could be used to facilitate exploitation, increasing the risk if user awareness is low. Given the widespread use of WordPress across Europe, the vulnerability could have broad impact if left unmitigated.

1. Monitor for and apply official patches or updates from the plugin developer as soon as they become available. 2. Until patches are released, restrict administrative access to trusted personnel and enforce multi-factor authentication to reduce the risk of compromised admin accounts. 3. Implement Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with rules to detect and block CSRF attack patterns, especially targeting requests to misc-settings.php or plugin configuration endpoints. 4. Educate administrators about the risks of clicking unsolicited links and train them to recognize phishing attempts that could lead to CSRF exploitation. 5. Consider temporarily disabling or removing the Lucky Draw Contests plugin if it is not essential to reduce attack surface. 6. Review and harden WordPress security settings, including limiting plugin permissions and regularly auditing installed plugins for vulnerabilities. 7. Employ security plugins that add additional nonce verification or CSRF protection layers beyond the plugin’s native controls.