Better WordPress Google XML Sitemaps <= 1.4.1 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- Better WordPress Google XML Sitemaps (support Sitemap Index, Multi-site and Google News)
- Affected Version
<= 1.4.1- CVSS
- 6.1Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE-2022-0230
At a glance
CVE-2022-0230 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Better WordPress Google XML Sitemaps (support Sitemap Index, Multi-site and Google News) WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.4.1. It carries a CVSS score of 6.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed February 2022, reported by Krzysztof Zając.
Vulnerability Overview
The Better WordPress Google XML Sitemaps WordPress plugin through 1.4.1 does not sanitise and escape its logs when outputting them in the admin dashboard, which could allow unauthenticated users to perform Stored Cross-Site Scripting attacks against admins
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 Better WordPress Google XML Sitemaps (support Sitemap Index, Multi-site and Google News) <= 1.4.1 takes no account at all. 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. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for Better WordPress Google XML Sitemaps (support Sitemap Index, Multi-site and Google News) yet, so installs running <= 1.4.1 stay exposed until the vendor ships one.
Remediation
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
How does WordSec protect against this?
Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Firewall
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C