Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.1.3
- Affected Plugin
- Advanced Search
- Affected Version
<= 1.1.2- CVSS
- 6.1Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE-2021-38348
At a glance
CVE-2021-38348 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Advanced Search WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.1.2. 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 1.1.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2021, reported by p7e4.
Vulnerability Overview
The Advance Search WordPress plugin is vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting via the wpas_id parameter found in the ~/inc/admin/views/html-advance-search-admin-options.php file which allows attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts, in versions up to and including 1.1.2.
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 Advanced Search <= 1.1.2 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 Advanced Search the fix is 1.1.3: builds <= 1.1.2 are affected, anything from 1.1.3 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.1.3, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Advanced Search: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Advanced Search 1.1.3 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Advanced Search
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