The time for attackers to respond to known vulnerabilities is shrinking. See an example of an attacker using sample code.
The Akamai Security Intelligence Group (SIG) has been analyzing attack attempt activity following the announcement of a critical vulnerability in a WordPress custom fields plug-in affecting more than 2 million sites.
Exploiting this vulnerability could lead to a reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) attack, in which malicious code is injected into a victim site and pushed to its visitors.
On May 4, 2023, the WP Engine team announced the security fix in version 6.1.6, including sample exploit code as a proof of concept (PoC).
Starting on May 6, less than 48 hours after the announcement, the SIG observed significant attack attempt activity, scanning for vulnerable sites using the sample code provided in the technical write-up.
This highlights that the response time for attackers is rapidly decreasing, increasing the need for vigorous and prompt patch management.
