Co-Authors Plus 3.5 - 3.5.1 - Sensitive Information Disclosure
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 3.5.2
- Affected Plugin
- Co-Authors Plus
- Affected Version
3.5 – 3.5.1- CVSS
- 7.5High
- Weakness type
- CWE-200 · Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
- CVE
CVE pending
At a glance
This record tracks a high-severity Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor vulnerability in the Co-Authors Plus WordPress plugin, affecting versions 3.5 – 3.5.1. It carries a CVSS score of 7.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 3.5.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2022, reported by Douglas Johnson.
Vulnerability Overview
The Co-Authors Plus plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to sensitive information disclosure via the /wp/v2/coauthors REST API input in versions 3.5 and 3.5.1. This is due to insufficient capability checking that allows unauthorized users to access the endpoint and retrieve guest authors email addresses.
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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality.
CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
Reaching this weakness in Co-Authors Plus 3.5 – 3.5.1 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Sensitive information exposure means data the application intended to keep internal is returned to a caller who should not be able to see it.
The disclosed data — credentials, tokens, customer records or internal paths — is usually worth more as material for a follow-up attack than as an end in itself. For Co-Authors Plus the fix is 3.5.2: builds 3.5 – 3.5.1 are affected, anything from 3.5.2 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 3.5.2, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The fix is the thing that ends this: Co-Authors Plus 3.5.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Alerts
External References
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