From nakedsecurity.sophos.com
Two hacking groups have been spotted targeting websites running unpatched versions of the WordPress plugin Easy WP SMTP.
Easy WP for SMTP, which has more than 300,000 installs, is marketed as a plugin that lets WordPress sites route their bulk emails via a reputable SMTP server as a way of ensuring they aren’t spamholed by suspicious email providers.
Unfortunately, version 1.3.9 is vulnerable to a security flaw that allows attackers to set up ordinary subscriber accounts with hidden admin powers or hijack sites to serve malicious redirects.
According to WordPress firewall developer Defiant (formerly WordFence), the problem lies with the Import/Export functionality added to 1.3.9:
The new code resides in the plugin’s admin_init hook, which executes in wp-admin/ scripts like admin-ajax.php and admin-post.php.