CVE-2022-33142

Better Messages <= 1.9.10.57 - Resource Exhaustion

2022-08-22 00:00
Dhakal Ananda

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.9.10.58
Affected Plugin
Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots
Affected Version
<= 1.9.10.57
CVSS
7.7High
Weakness type
CWE-400 · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
CVE
CVE-2022-33142
View all Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-33142 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in the Better Messages WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.9.10.57. It carries a CVSS score of 7.7 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high availability impact). The issue is fixed in version 1.9.10.58; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2022, reported by Dhakal Ananda.

Vulnerability Overview

The Better Messages plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Resource Exhaustion in versions up to, and including, 1.9.10.57 due to not limiting the size of individual messages. This allows attackers, with subscriber-level access or higher, to exhaust resources on the target server potentially resulting in Denial of Service.

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. A successful exploit has high impact on availability.

CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Reaching this weakness in Better Messages <= 1.9.10.57 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Uncontrolled resource consumption means a request can make the server do an amount of work it never bounds, because the size or repetition of the job is taken from the request rather than capped by the code.

A single caller can hold PHP workers, database connections or disk open long enough to slow the site for everyone, without needing any account or any other flaw. For Better Messages the fix is 1.9.10.58: builds <= 1.9.10.57 are affected, anything from 1.9.10.58 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.9.10.58, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Better Messages: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Better Messages 1.9.10.58 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-33142https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/68fee8cb-476d-4962-b830-59fd823329achttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-33142

Related records

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