CVE-2022-43504

WordPress Core < 6.0.3 - Stored Cross-Site Scripting via wp-mail.php

2022-10-18 00:00
Toshitsugu Yoneyama of Mitsui Bussan Secure Directions, Inc. via JPCERT

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.7.40
Affected Core
WordPress 6.0
Affected Version
3.6.1 – 6.0.2 · 25 branches
CVSS
7.2High
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2022-43504
View all WordPress 6.0 vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-43504 is a high-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the WordPress 6.0 WordPress release line, affecting 3.6.1 – 6.0.2 · 25 branches. It carries a CVSS score of 7.2 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 3.7.40; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2022, reported by Toshitsugu Yoneyama of Mitsui Bussan Secure Directions, Inc. via JPCERT.

Vulnerability Overview

WordPress Core in versions up to 6.0.3 are vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting via wp-mail.php. This is due to no validation on what level the user was sending the email post and therefore did not perform any sanitization on the submitted post data. This meant that users without the unfiltered_html capability, with access to submitting posts via email, could inject malicious JavaScript into posts that would execute whenever someone accessed the post. CVE-2022-43500 may be a duplicate of this issue.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user.

CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

Reaching this weakness in WordPress 6.0 3.6.1 – 6.0.2 · 25 branches takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site scripting happens when input from a request is written into a page without being escaped for the context it lands in, so the browser parses attacker-supplied text as markup or script.

Injected script runs with the privileges of whoever views the affected page, which is how these flaws turn into administrator session theft, silent account creation or persistent backdoors in page content. For WordPress 6.0 the fix is 3.7.40: builds 3.6.1 – 6.0.2 · 25 branches are affected, anything from 3.7.40 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to one of the following versions, or a newer patched version: 3.7.40, 3.8.40, 3.9.38, 4.0.37, 4.1.37, 4.2.34, 4.3.30, 4.4.29, 4.5.28, 4.6.25, 4.7.25, 4.8.21, 4.9.22, 5.0.18, 5.1.15, 5.2.17, 5.3.14, 5.4.12, 5.5.11, 5.6.10, 5.7.8, 5.8.6, 5.9.5, 6.0.3

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to WordPress 6.0: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: updating to 3.7.40 is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-43504https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/eadbfb77-fb9a-4363-acc8-8dd9b87820ebhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-43504

Related records

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