SQL Injection in WordPress Answer My Question Plugin

Answer My Question 1.3 plugin for WordPress contains an SQL injection vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary SQL queries by injecting malicious code through the 'id' POST parameter. Attackers can submit crafted SQL statements to the modal.php endpoint to extract sensitive database information including WordPress terms and configuration data.

Casky was already ahead

This CVE exploits attack patterns that Casky's 301matched skills already investigate — long before this vulnerability was disclosed. Claude's reasoning model maps these techniques to MITRE ATT&CK, so practitioners who ran these skills have already seen the threat behaviour in their findings.

Analysis

CVE-2016-20073 exposes a critical SQL injection vulnerability in the Answer My Question 1.3 plugin for WordPress, affecting any installation running this outdated component. The vulnerability exists in the modal.php endpoint, where the 'id' POST parameter is processed without proper sanitization or parameterized queries. Since the plugin accepts unauthenticated requests, any attacker can craft malicious SQL statements to extract sensitive data directly from the WordPress database, including user credentials, configuration settings, and other terms stored in the database. With a CVSS score of 8.2, this represents a high-severity threat that can lead to complete database compromise and lateral movement within a WordPress infrastructure.

Casky's 301 mapped security skills leverage Claude AI's extended reasoning to detect the exploitation patterns associated with TA0001 (Reconnaissance) and TA0043 (Reconnaissance). Practitioners using Casky would observe detection alerts focused on abnormal SQL syntax patterns in request payloads, POST parameter fuzzing attempts targeting the modal.php endpoint, and database query anomalies indicating unauthorized data extraction. The platform correlates evidence of unauthenticated POST requests with SQL keywords (UNION, SELECT, WHERE) appearing in parameter values—classic indicators of SQL injection attempts mapped to CWE-89. By analyzing request-response cycles and database query logs through Claude's reasoning capabilities, security teams can identify both active exploitation attempts and historical compromise patterns, enabling rapid response and remediation of affected WordPress instances.

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Casky Risk Score

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EPSS Probability

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Shodan Exposure

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GreyNoise Signal

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Composite risk scoring from EPSS, CISA KEV, Shodan, and GreyNoise — 21 security APIs correlated into a single Casky Risk Score. Coming in Casky Pro. Join early access →

301 Casky skills cover this attack pattern

These skills use Claude AI's reasoning model to surface findings in the same attack categories as CVE-2016-20073.

analyzing-apt-group-with-mitre-navigator

threat intelligence · low

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analyzing-campaign-attribution-evidence

threat intelligence · low

Run

analyzing-certificate-transparency-for-phishing

threat intelligence · low

Run

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

TA0001 TA0043

Investigate the attack patterns behind CVE-2016-20073

Casky has 301 skills that investigate the attack patterns behind CVE-2016-20073. Run one and get CVSS-scored findings in 3 minutes.

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