CVE-2022-2173

Advanced Database Cleaner <= 3.1.0 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

2022-06-27 00:00
ZhongFu Su

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.1.1
Affected Plugin
Advanced Database Cleaner – Optimize & Clean Database to Speed Up Site Performance
Affected Version
<= 3.1.0
CVSS
6.1Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2022-2173
View all Advanced Database Cleaner – Optimize & Clean Database to Speed Up Site Performance vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-2173 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Advanced Database Cleaner WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.1.0. 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 3.1.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2022, reported by ZhongFu Su.

Vulnerability Overview

The Advanced Database Cleaner WordPress plugin before 3.1.1 does not escape numerous generated URLs before outputting them back in href attributes of admin dashboard pages, leading to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

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 Database Cleaner <= 3.1.0 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 Database Cleaner the fix is 3.1.1: builds <= 3.1.0 are affected, anything from 3.1.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.1.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Advanced Database Cleaner: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Advanced Database Cleaner 3.1.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-2173https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/887ca432-5412-401c-8d4e-52dcb511e5bahttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-2173

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C