CVE-2021-24234

Ivory Search <= 4.6 - Reflected Cross Site Scripting

2021-03-30 00:00
Jinson Varghese Behanan

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 4.6.1
Affected Plugin
Ivory Search – WordPress Search Plugin
Affected Version
<= 4.6
CVSS
6.1Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2021-24234
View all Ivory Search – WordPress Search Plugin vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-24234 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Ivory Search WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 4.6. It carries a CVSS score of 6.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 4.6.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2021, reported by Jinson Varghese Behanan.

Vulnerability Overview

The Search Forms page of the Ivory Search WordPress lugin before 4.6.1 did not properly sanitise the tab parameter before output it in the page, leading to a reflected Cross-Site Scripting issue when opening a malicious crafted link as a high privilege user. Knowledge of a form id is required to conduct the attack.

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.

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

Reaching this weakness in Ivory Search <= 4.6 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 Ivory Search the fix is 4.6.1: builds <= 4.6 are affected, anything from 4.6.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 4.6.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Ivory Search: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Ivory Search 4.6.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-24234https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/d9e3f310-5a5e-4ca8-806d-9a7aacfaf5edhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24234

Related records

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