CVE-2023-1011

ChatBot <= 4.4.4 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Cross-Site Request Forgery

2023-04-20 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 4.4.5
Affected Plugin: WPBot – AI ChatBot for Live Support, Lead Generation, WordPress Automation, AI Services
Affected Version: <= 4.4.4
CVSS: 6.1Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2023-1011

View all WPBot – AI ChatBot for Live Support, Lead Generation, WordPress Automation, AI Services vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-1011 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the WPBot WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 4.4.4. It carries a CVSS score of 6.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 4.4.5; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2023, reported by Erwan LR.

Vulnerability Overview

The ChatBot plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the plugin settings in versions up to, and including, 4.4.4 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping and a lack of nonce check on the 'openai_settings_option_callback' function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page, granted they can trick an authenticated user into performing an action, such as clicking 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-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

WPBot <= 4.4.4 carries this weakness at openai_settings_option_callback, and reaching it 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. For WPBot the fix is 4.4.5: builds <= 4.4.4 are affected, anything from 4.4.5 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 4.4.5, or a newer patched version

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. None of that substitutes for the fix: WPBot 4.4.5 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-1011 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/56fad8de-6646-4305-83a9-0ed443c3aa7d https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-1011

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in WPBot – AI ChatBot for Live Support, Lead Generation, WordPress Automation, AI Services

CVSS Vector

6.1

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionRequired
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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