CVE-2025-11972

The Tag, Category, and Taxonomy Manager – AI Autotagger with OpenAI plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to SQL Injection via the 'post_types' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 3.40.0 due to insufficient escaping on the user supplied parameter and lack of sufficient preparation on the existing SQL query. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Editor-level access and above, to append additional SQL queries into already existing queries that can be used to extract sensitive information from the database.

An attacker with Editor credentials—obtained via phishing, credential stuffing against /wp-login.php, or an insider—sends a crafted POST request to the TaxoPress admin AJAX handler with a stacked SQL payload in the 'post_types' parameter. The injected query reads wp_options WHERE option_name='taxopress_openai_settings' (or equivalent), returning the stored OpenAI API key in the response. The attacker then authenticates directly to the OpenAI API using the stolen key, queries models at the victim's expense, extracts any data ingested via the plugin's auto-tagging workflow, or sells the key. Total exploitation time post-authentication: under 5 minutes with public SQLi tooling.