Simple Download Counter: Filesystem traversal
Simple Download Counter is affected by filesystem traversal. Exploitation requires at least administrator-level access. A crafted path can escape the intended directory and reach files or directories elsewhere on the server.
- Component
- Simple Download Counter
- Plugin slug
simple-download-counter- Affected
- See vendor advisory
- Safe version
- See mitigation notes
- Published
- Dec 10, 2025
This CVE was published Dec 10, 2025 and is one of 5 known issues for this plugin.
Update, patch or deactivate.
Update Simple Download Counter to a release outside the affected range, or disable and remove it until a fixed version is available.
No confirmed safe version is listed. Consider a vendor-supported patch or temporarily restricting the affected functionality while you assess the risk.
Deactivate only when warranted by your risk profile, or when advised by your hosting provider in the limited circumstances where the vulnerability cannot otherwise be mitigated. If you’re unsure which action is appropriate, contact Fused or your hosting provider for guidance.
Technical description
The Simple Download Counter plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Path Traversal in all versions up to, and including, 2.2.2. This is due to insufficient path validation in the `simple_download_counter_parse_path()` function. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Administrator-level access and above, to read the contents of arbitrary files on the server, which may contain sensitive information such as database credentials (wp-config.php) or system files. Please note that the vendor opted to continue to allow remote file downloads from arbitrary locations on the server, however, has disabled this functionality on multi-sites and provided a warning to site owners in the readme.txt when they install the plugin. While not an optimal patch, we have considered this sufficient and recommend users proceed to use the plugin with caution.
CVE / CNA vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N