CVE-2023-46630

Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) <= 5.7.1 - Password Protection Mode Security Feature Bypass

2023-10-25 00:00
Abu Hurayra (HurayraIIT)

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 5.8.0
Affected Plugin
Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE)
Affected Version
<= 5.7.1
CVSS
7.5High
Weakness type
CWE-287 · Improper Authentication
CVE
CVE-2023-46630
View all Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-46630 is a high-severity Improper Authentication vulnerability in the Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 5.7.1. It carries a CVSS score of 7.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 5.8.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2023, reported by Abu Hurayra (HurayraIIT).

Vulnerability Overview

The Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to security feature bypass in all versions up to, and including, 5.7.1. This is due to a flawed authentication mechanism within the maybe_process_login function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to bypass the Password Protection feature and view password protected pages.

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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality.

CWE-287: Improper Authentication

Reaching this weakness in Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) <= 5.7.1 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Improper authentication means the mechanism that proves who a caller is can be satisfied without the secret it was supposed to require.

An attacker authenticates as another user — administrators included — without ever knowing a password, so password policies and login rate limits never come into play. For Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) the fix is 5.8.0: builds <= 5.7.1 are affected, anything from 5.8.0 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 5.8.0, or a newer patched version

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. None of that substitutes for the fix: Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 5.8.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-46630https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/0abad47f-a806-4cdd-a11f-015b997b5e86https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-46630

Related records

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