Better Font Awesome <= 2.0.3 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Shortcodes
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.0.4
- Affected Plugin
- Better Font Awesome
- Affected Version
<= 2.0.3- CVSS
- 6.4Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE-2022-4512
At a glance
CVE-2022-4512 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Better Font Awesome WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.0.3. 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 2.0.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2023, reported by István Márton.
Vulnerability Overview
The Better Font Awesome plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via shortcode attributes (such as 'title', 'size', and class strings) in versions up to, and including, 2.0.3 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for contributor-level 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')
Better Font Awesome <= 2.0.3 carries this weakness at title, and reaching it 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 Better Font Awesome the fix is 2.0.4: builds <= 2.0.3 are affected, anything from 2.0.4 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.0.4, 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: Better Font Awesome 2.0.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Better Font Awesome
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