Ads by datafeedr.com <= 1.1.3 - Unauthenticated (Limited) Remote Code Execution
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.2.0
- Affected Plugin
- Ads by datafeedr.com
- Affected Version
<= 1.1.3- CVSS
- 9.0Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
- CVE
CVE-2023-5843
At a glance
CVE-2023-5843 is a critical-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the Ads by datafeedr.com WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.1.3. It carries a CVSS score of 9.0 (reachable over the network; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.2.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2023, reported by István Márton.
Vulnerability Overview
The Ads by datafeedr.com plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution in versions up to, and including, 1.1.3 via the 'dfads_ajax_load_ads' function. This allows unauthenticated attackers to execute code on the server. The parameters of the callable function are limited, they cannot be specified arbitrarily.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, and no privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
Ads by datafeedr.com <= 1.1.3 carries this weakness at dfads_ajax_load_ads, and reaching it takes no account at all. Code injection means input from a request reaches a language construct that evaluates code, so the attacker's text is executed rather than treated as data.
The injected code runs with the web server's privileges, giving the attacker the same access to the database and filesystem as WordPress itself. For Ads by datafeedr.com the fix is 1.2.0: builds <= 1.1.3 are affected, anything from 1.2.0 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.2.0, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Ads by datafeedr.com 1.2.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Scanner
- Login Security
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Ads by datafeedr.com
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C