CVE-2023-5292

Advanced Custom Fields: Extended <= 0.8.9.3 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Shortcode

2023-09-29 00:00
István Márton

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 0.8.9.4
Affected Plugin
Advanced Custom Fields: Extended
Affected Version
<= 0.8.9.3
CVSS
6.4Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2023-5292
View all Advanced Custom Fields: Extended vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-5292 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Advanced Custom Fields WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 0.8.9.3. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Contributor level or above. The issue is fixed in version 0.8.9.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2023, reported by István Márton.

Vulnerability Overview

The Advanced Custom Fields: Extended plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'acfe_form' shortcode in versions up to, and including, 0.8.9.3 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on user supplied attributes. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with contributor-level and above permissions to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

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 interaction from a victim user.

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

Advanced Custom Fields <= 0.8.9.3 carries this weakness at acfe_form, and reaching it takes an account at Contributor level or above. 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 Advanced Custom Fields the fix is 0.8.9.4: builds <= 0.8.9.3 are affected, anything from 0.8.9.4 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 0.8.9.4, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Contributor access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Advanced Custom Fields 0.8.9.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-5292https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/dcbe0c72-d518-45d3-a220-896a51071b26https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-5292

Related records

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