CVE-2022-36394

Contest Gallery <= 17.0.4 - Authenticated (Author+) SQL Injection

2022-08-09 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 17.0.5
Affected Plugin: Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe
Affected Version: <= 17.0.4
CVSS: 8.8High
Weakness type: CWE-89 · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')
CVE: CVE-2022-36394

View all Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-36394 is a high-severity Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') vulnerability in the Contest Gallery WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 17.0.4. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Author level or above. The issue is fixed in version 17.0.5; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2022, reported by Nguy Minh Tuan.

Vulnerability Overview

The Contest Gallery plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to SQL Injection in versions up to, and including, 17.0.4 due to insufficient escaping on the user supplied $id parameter and lack of sufficient preparation on the existing SQL query. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to append additional SQL queries into already existing queries that can be used to extract sensitive information from the database.

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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')

Reaching this weakness in Contest Gallery <= 17.0.4 takes an account at Author level or above. SQL injection happens when request data is concatenated into a query instead of being bound as a parameter, letting an attacker change the structure of the statement rather than just its values.

A working injection can read any table the database user can see, which on a WordPress install means user records, password hashes and session or API secrets stored in options. For Contest Gallery the fix is 17.0.5: builds <= 17.0.4 are affected, anything from 17.0.5 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 17.0.5, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Author access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Contest Gallery 17.0.5 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-36394 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/f9b90e03-cdaa-4bd3-9afd-5d5c91a17962 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-36394

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Contest Gallery – Upload & Vote Photos, Media, Sell with PayPal & Stripe

CVSS Vector

8.8

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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