CVE-2023-41804

Starter Templates <= 3.2.4 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Server-Side Request Forgery

2023-09-05 00:00
Rafie Muhammad

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.2.5
Affected Plugin
Starter Templates: AI-Powered Website Templates for Elementor & Gutenberg
Affected Version
<= 3.2.4
CVSS
6.4Medium
Weakness type
CWE-918 · Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
CVE
CVE-2023-41804
View all Starter Templates: AI-Powered Website Templates for Elementor & Gutenberg vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-41804 is a medium-severity Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in the Starter Templates WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.2.4. 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 3.2.5; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2023, reported by Rafie Muhammad.

Vulnerability Overview

The Starter Templates (free and premium) plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Server-Side Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 3.2.4 via the remote_request. This can allow authenticated attackers, with contributor-level access and above, to make web requests to arbitrary locations originating from the web application and can be used to query and modify information from internal services. CVE-2023-34370 appears to be a duplicate of this.

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-918: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)

Reaching this weakness in Starter Templates <= 3.2.4 takes an account at Contributor level or above. Server-side request forgery means the application fetches a URL supplied by the caller, turning the server into a proxy for requests the attacker could not make directly.

The request originates from inside the hosting network, which is how these flaws reach cloud metadata endpoints, internal admin panels and services that trust local traffic. For Starter Templates the fix is 3.2.5: builds <= 3.2.4 are affected, anything from 3.2.5 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.2.5, 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: Starter Templates 3.2.5 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-41804https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/6e0bdbba-2b67-42b9-8c26-115d472aed0ehttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-41804

Related records

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