Advanced Custom Fields: Image Crop Add-on <= 1.4.12 - Improper Authorization
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- Advanced Custom Fields: Image Crop Add-on
- Affected Version
<= 1.4.12- CVSS
- 4.3Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-285 · Improper Authorization
- CVE
CVE-2023-22676
At a glance
CVE-2023-22676 is a medium-severity Improper Authorization vulnerability in the Advanced Custom Fields WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.4.12. It carries a CVSS score of 4.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed January 2023, reported by István Márton.
Vulnerability Overview
The Advanced Custom Fields: Image Crop Add-on plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Improper Authorization in versions up to, and including, 1.4.12, via the 'acf_image_crop_perform_crop' AJAX action. This allows any authenticated user, including subscriber-level users, to crop and resize images in the media library.
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-285: Improper Authorization
Advanced Custom Fields <= 1.4.12 carries this weakness at acf_image_crop_perform_crop, and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Improper authorization means a permission check exists but does not cover the case being exercised, so a caller who is allowed to do one thing is allowed to do a neighbouring thing as well.
A lower-privileged account performs an action reserved for a higher one, which on a multi-author or membership site means an ordinary user reaching administrative behaviour. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for Advanced Custom Fields yet, so installs running <= 1.4.12 stay exposed until the vendor ships one.
Remediation
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
How does WordSec protect against this?
Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C