CVE-2023-28749

CM On Demand Search And Replace <= 1.3.0 - Cross-Site Request Forgery

2023-05-09 00:00
Abdi Pranata

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.3.1
Affected Plugin
CM Search And Replace – Optimize content edits with a powerful search and replace tool
Affected Version
<= 1.3.0
CVSS
4.3Medium
Weakness type
CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE
CVE-2023-28749
View all CM Search And Replace – Optimize content edits with a powerful search and replace tool vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-28749 is a medium-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the CM Search And Replace WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.3.0. 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 1.3.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2023, reported by Abdi Pranata.

Vulnerability Overview

The CM On Demand Search And Replace plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 1.3.0. This is due to missing nonce validation on the ajaxUpdateReplacement, ajaxDeleteReplacement, and ajaxAddReplacement functions called via AJAX actions. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to manage and modify replacements configured for the site, 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 CM Search And Replace <= 1.3.0 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 CM Search And Replace the fix is 1.3.1: builds <= 1.3.0 are affected, anything from 1.3.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.3.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to CM Search And Replace: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: CM Search And Replace 1.3.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-28749https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/fde1157b-5b99-4e9c-9c51-ebaa0eddfd73https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-28749

Related records

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