"We forgot to update that plugin, attackers used it as an entry point."
COMPANY
Sector: Hospitality
Size: 80 employees
Location: Flanders
FACTS & FIGURES
Critical plugin outdated by 2 years
Known RCE vulnerability (CVE-2023-XXXX)
Business Impact: Attacker gained persistent access
STORY
A hotel in Flanders used a popular booking plugin on its WordPress website. The IT team neglected updates, believing the plugin was stable. Unfortunately, a critical vulnerability had been published months earlier, and attackers quickly exploited it. They uploaded a webshell through the plugin, gaining persistent access. Over several weeks, attackers silently collected customer payment data and injected malicious ads on the website. The compromise was only discovered after guests reported fraudulent charges on their credit cards.
INCIDENT OVERVIEW
Outdated plugins are one of the leading causes of CMS compromises. Attackers exploit public CVEs to take control quickly.
BUSINESS IMPACT
Theft of customer payment data
PCI-DSS non-compliance
Loss of bookings due to downtime
Costly forensic investigation
SECURITY MEASURES
Maintain regular patch schedule for all CMS plugins
Remove unused plugins immediately
Enable automatic updates where possible
Monitor vulnerability databases