CVE-2023-30777

Advanced Custom Fields (Free and Pro) 5.8.10 to 5.12.5 & 6.0.0 to 6.1.5 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting via 'post_status'

2023-05-04 00:00
Rafie Muhammad

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 5.12.6
Affected Plugin
Advanced Custom Fields Pro
Affected Version
5.8.10 – 6.1.5 · 2 branches
CVSS
6.1Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2023-30777
View all Advanced Custom Fields Pro vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-30777 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Advanced Custom Fields Pro WordPress plugin, affecting versions 5.8.10 – 6.1.5 · 2 branches. 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 5.12.6; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2023, reported by Rafie Muhammad.

Vulnerability Overview

The Advanced Custom Fields (free & PRO) plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting via the 'post_status' parameter in versions 5.8.10 to 5.12.5 and versions 6.0.0 to 6.1.5 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that execute if they can successfully trick a user into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

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')

Advanced Custom Fields Pro 5.8.10 – 6.1.5 · 2 branches carries this weakness at post_status, and reaching it 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 Custom Fields Pro the fix is 5.12.6: builds 5.8.10 – 6.1.5 · 2 branches are affected, anything from 5.12.6 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to one of the following versions, or a newer patched version: 5.12.6, 6.1.6

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Advanced Custom Fields Pro: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Advanced Custom Fields Pro 5.12.6 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-30777https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e7ae8dcd-00b6-4afc-85bb-6697820bb37chttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-30777

Related records

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