vulnerability
WordPress Plugin: blackhole-bad-bots: CVE-2022-1165: Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key
| Severity | CVSS | Published | Added | Modified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P) | Jan 31, 2022 | May 15, 2025 | Apr 30, 2026 |
Severity
6
CVSS
(AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P)
Published
Jan 31, 2022
Added
May 15, 2025
Modified
Apr 30, 2026
Description
The Blackhole for Bad Bots WordPress plugin before 3.3.2 uses headers such as CF-CONNECTING-IP, CLIENT-IP etc to determine the IP address of requests hitting the blackhole URL, which allows them to be spoofed. This could result in blocking arbitrary IP addresses, such as legitimate/good search engine crawlers / bots. This could also be abused by competitors to cause damage related to visibility in search engines, can be used to bypass arbitrary blocks caused by this plugin, block any visitor or even the administrator and even more.
Solution
blackhole-bad-bots-plugin-cve-2022-1165
References
Rapid7 Labs
2026 Global Threat Landscape Report
The predictive window has collapsed. Exploitation follows disclosure in days. See how attackers are accelerating and how to stay ahead.