CVE-2023-38515

Church Admin <= 3.7.56 - Server-Side Request Forgery via church_admin_import_csv

2023-07-26 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 3.8.0
Affected Plugin: Church Admin
Affected Version: <= 3.7.56
CVSS: 5.5Medium
Weakness type: CWE-918 · Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
CVE: CVE-2023-38515

At a glance

CVE-2023-38515 is a medium-severity Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in the Church Admin WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.7.56. It carries a CVSS score of 5.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 3.8.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2023, reported by Yuchen Ji.

Vulnerability Overview

The Church Admin plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Server-Side Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 3.7.56 via the church_admin_import_csv function when importing from a csv file. This can allow authenticated attackers with administrator access to make web requests to arbitrary locations originating from the web application and can be used to query and modify information from internal services.

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-918: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)

Reaching this weakness in Church Admin <= 3.7.56 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Server-side request forgery means the application fetches a URL supplied by the caller, turning the server into a proxy for requests the attacker could not make directly.

The request originates from inside the hosting network, which is how these flaws reach cloud metadata endpoints, internal admin panels and services that trust local traffic. For Church Admin the fix is 3.8.0: builds <= 3.7.56 are affected, anything from 3.8.0 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.8.0, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Church Admin: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Church Admin 3.8.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-38515 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/6ff53647-572f-419f-ad39-965658a10263 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-38515

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Church Admin

CVSS Vector

5.5

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredHigh
User InteractionNone
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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