CVE-2026-22358 is a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability identified in the SmartDataSoft Electrician - Electrical Service WordPress plugin, affecting all versions up to and including 5.6. SSRF vulnerabilities occur when an attacker can manipulate a server-side application to send HTTP requests to arbitrary domains or internal network resources, potentially bypassing firewall restrictions and accessing sensitive information or internal services. In this case, the plugin fails to properly validate or sanitize user-supplied URLs or parameters that trigger server-side HTTP requests, allowing unauthenticated attackers to craft requests that the server executes. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.4, indicating medium severity. The vector indicates network attack vector (AV:N), high attack complexity (AC:H), no privileges required (PR:N), no user interaction (UI:N), and a scope change (S:C), with limited confidentiality and integrity impact (C:L/I:L) and no availability impact (A:N). The high attack complexity suggests that exploitation depends on specific environmental conditions, such as the presence of internal services accessible from the web server or specific plugin configurations. No known public exploits exist yet, but the vulnerability could be leveraged to perform internal network reconnaissance, access metadata services, or exfiltrate sensitive data from internal systems. The plugin is used primarily by electrical service providers and related businesses, often small to medium enterprises using WordPress for their websites. The vulnerability’s presence in a widely used CMS plugin increases the risk of exploitation in the wild once exploit code becomes available.

For European organizations, the SSRF vulnerability poses a moderate risk primarily to confidentiality and integrity. Attackers could leverage this flaw to access internal network resources that are otherwise inaccessible externally, potentially exposing sensitive internal services, configuration data, or credentials. This could lead to further lateral movement or targeted attacks within the organization. Although availability is not directly impacted, the indirect consequences of data leakage or internal reconnaissance could facilitate more severe attacks. Organizations in sectors relying on WordPress for customer-facing websites, especially small and medium-sized enterprises in electrical services or related industries, are at risk. The vulnerability could also be exploited to access cloud metadata services if the hosting environment is cloud-based, leading to credential compromise. Given the medium CVSS score and lack of known exploits, the immediate risk is moderate but could escalate rapidly once exploit code is published. The impact is heightened in organizations with weak network segmentation or insufficient outbound traffic controls.

1. Apply patches or updates from SmartDataSoft as soon as they become available to remediate the vulnerability. 2. In the absence of patches, disable or remove the vulnerable plugin from WordPress installations. 3. Implement strict egress filtering on web servers to restrict outbound HTTP/HTTPS requests only to trusted destinations, preventing SSRF exploitation from reaching internal or sensitive endpoints. 4. Deploy Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with rules specifically designed to detect and block SSRF attack patterns, such as unusual URL parameters or requests targeting internal IP ranges. 5. Conduct thorough code reviews and input validation on any custom plugins or themes that handle external URLs or server-side requests. 6. Monitor logs for unusual outbound requests originating from WordPress servers that could indicate exploitation attempts. 7. Segment internal networks to limit access from web-facing servers to sensitive internal services. 8. Educate IT and security teams about SSRF risks and signs of exploitation to improve detection and response capabilities.