# CVE-2024-12025: Collapsing Categories - SQLi

> Live exploitation tracking for CVE-2024-12025 by the CrowdSec Live Exploit Tracker, built from real-world attack data crowdsourced from CrowdSec's global network.

Page: https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2024-12025

## Key facts

- **Exploitation phase:** Limited Exploitation. The vulnerability is known but shows very limited attacker interest or exploitation activity.
- **CVSS score:** 7.5
- **Public exploit available:** Yes
- **Affected products:** Robfelty Collapsing Categories
- **Weaknesses:** CWE-89 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection'))
- **Tags:** wordpress, cms

## Description

The Collapsing Categories plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to SQL Injection via the 'taxonomy' parameter of the /wp-json/collapsing-categories/v1/get REST API in all versions up to, and including, 3.0.8 due to insufficient escaping on the user supplied parameter and lack of sufficient preparation on the existing SQL query.  This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to append additional SQL queries into already existing queries that can be used to extract sensitive information from the database.

## CrowdSec analysis

[CVE-2024-12025](https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/vulnerability/CVE-2024-12025) is a SQL injection vulnerability in the Collapsing Categories plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 3.0.8. This flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to exploit the 'taxonomy' parameter in the plugin's REST API, potentially enabling them to execute arbitrary SQL queries and extract sensitive information from the WordPress database.

CrowdSec has been tracking this vulnerability and its exploits since 25th of March 2026.

Data from the CrowdSec community indicates that exploitation of CVE-2024-12025 is highly selective and intelligence-driven. Threat actors use advanced reconnaissance and carefully choose their targets, often as part of sophisticated campaigns or advanced persistent threat operations.
CrowdSec network telemetry also shows that exploitation of CVE-2024-12025 has significantly declined over the past week. Attack volumes are well below the long-term average, suggesting attackers are rapidly losing interest. The vulnerability appears to be falling out of active use across most threat landscapes.

Attackers exploit the `/wp-json/collapsing-categories/v1/get` REST API endpoint by injecting malicious SQL code into the `taxonomy` parameter, enabling unauthenticated SQL injection attempts against vulnerable WordPress sites.

## Timeline

- 2024-12-18: CVE Published. CVE-2024-12025 is published to NVD.
- 2026-03-25: Rule Released. CrowdSec releases a rule to detect CVE-2024-12025 exploitation attempts against the CrowdSec Network.
- 2026-03-31: CrowdSec First Seen. CrowdSec observes in-the-wild exploitation of CVE-2024-12025 for the first time.

## References

- https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2024/CVE-2024-12025.yaml

## Live exploitation data

The [Live Exploit Tracker page](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2024-12025) follows observed exploitation activity for CVE-2024-12025. [Request an API key](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/request-api-key) for full access to its exploitation timeline, attacking IP addresses and blocklists.