CVE-2023-5534

AI ChatBot <= 4.8.9 and 4.9.2 - Cross-Site Request Forgery on AJAX actions

2023-10-11 00:00
Marco Wotschka

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 4.9.1
Affected Plugin
WPBot – AI ChatBot for Live Support, Lead Generation, WordPress Automation, AI Services
Affected Version
4.8.9 – 4.9.2 · 2 branches
CVSS
4.3Medium
Weakness type
CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE
CVE-2023-5534
View all WPBot – AI ChatBot for Live Support, Lead Generation, WordPress Automation, AI Services vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-5534 is a medium-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the WPBot WordPress plugin, affecting versions 4.8.9 – 4.9.2 · 2 branches. It carries a CVSS score of 4.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 4.9.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2023, reported by Marco Wotschka.

Vulnerability Overview

The AI ChatBot plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 4.8.9 and 4.9.2. This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on the corresponding functions. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to invoke those functions via a forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

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-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Reaching this weakness in WPBot 4.8.9 – 4.9.2 · 2 branches takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site request forgery abuses the fact that browsers attach a victim's cookies to any request, so a state-changing action that only checks who you are, not whether you meant to act, can be triggered from another site.

An attacker who gets a logged-in user to load a crafted page can perform that action as them, with the impact scaling to whatever the victim's role is allowed to do. For WPBot the fix is 4.9.1: builds 4.8.9 – 4.9.2 · 2 branches are affected, anything from 4.9.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to one of the following versions, or a newer patched version: 4.9.1, 4.9.3

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to WPBot: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: WPBot 4.9.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-5534https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/846bd929-45cd-4e91-b232-ae16dd2b12a0https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-5534

Related records

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