CVE-2023-50874

WordPress Infinite Scroll – Ajax Load More <= 6.1.0.1 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting

2023-12-22 00:00
Ngô Thiên An (ancorn_)

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 6.2
Affected Plugin
Ajax Load More – Infinite Scroll, Load More, & Lazy Load
Affected Version
<= 6.1.0.1
CVSS
6.4Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2023-50874
View all Ajax Load More – Infinite Scroll, Load More, & Lazy Load vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-50874 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Ajax Load More WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 6.1.0.1. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Contributor level or above. The issue is fixed in version 6.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed December 2023, reported by Ngô Thiên An (ancorn_).

Vulnerability Overview

The WordPress Infinite Scroll – Ajax Load More plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via an unknown parameter in all versions up to 6.1.0.1 (inclusive) due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

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 interaction from a victim user.

CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

Reaching this weakness in Ajax Load More <= 6.1.0.1 takes an account at Contributor level or above. 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 Ajax Load More the fix is 6.2: builds <= 6.1.0.1 are affected, anything from 6.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 6.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Contributor access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Ajax Load More 6.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-50874https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e3bcc0aa-281f-4c59-b3de-dde4277cc989https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-50874

Related records

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