CVE-2023-2159

CMP – Coming Soon & Maintenance <= 4.1.7 - Maintenance Mode Bypass

2023-04-18 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 4.1.8
Affected Plugin: CMP – Coming Soon & Maintenance Plugin by NiteoThemes
Affected Version: <= 4.1.7
CVSS: 5.3Medium
Weakness type: CWE-284 · Improper Access Control
CVE: CVE-2023-2159

View all CMP – Coming Soon & Maintenance Plugin by NiteoThemes vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-2159 is a medium-severity Improper Access Control vulnerability in the CMP WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 4.1.7. It carries a CVSS score of 5.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 4.1.8; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2023, reported by Marco Wotschka.

Vulnerability Overview

The CMP – Coming Soon & Maintenance plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Maintenance Mode Bypass in versions up to, and including, 4.1.7. A correct cmp_bypass GET parameter in the URL (equal to the md5-hashed home_url in the default setting) allows users to visit a site placed in maintenance mode thus bypassing the plugin's provided feature.

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, and no interaction from a victim user.

CWE-284: Improper Access Control

Reaching this weakness in CMP <= 4.1.7 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Improper access control means the code decides what a caller may do using something other than their actual permissions, so the decision can be wrong without any check appearing to be missing.

Whoever can shape the request decides the answer, so the protected action runs for callers the code never meant to allow. For CMP the fix is 4.1.8: builds <= 4.1.7 are affected, anything from 4.1.8 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 4.1.8, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: CMP 4.1.8 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-2159 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/af955f69-b18c-446e-b05e-6a57a5f16dfa https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-2159

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in CMP – Coming Soon & Maintenance Plugin by NiteoThemes

CVSS Vector

5.3

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityNone
AvailabilityNone

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