Contextual Related Posts <= 2.9.3 - Cross-Site Request Forgery

2020-11-19 00:00
Lenon Leite

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2.9.4
Affected Plugin
Contextual Related Posts
Affected Version
<= 2.9.3
CVSS
4.3Medium
Weakness type
CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE
CVE pending
View all Contextual Related Posts vulnerabilities

At a glance

This record tracks a medium-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Contextual Related Posts WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.9.3. 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 2.9.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed November 2020, reported by Lenon Leite.

Vulnerability Overview

The Contextual Related Posts plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 2.9.3. This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on the crp_process_settings_export() or crp_process_settings_import() functions. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to perform administrative actions and/or obtain unauthorized information via 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)

Contextual Related Posts <= 2.9.3 carries this weakness at crp_process_settings_export(), and reaching it 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 Contextual Related Posts the fix is 2.9.4: builds <= 2.9.3 are affected, anything from 2.9.4 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.9.4, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Contextual Related Posts: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Contextual Related Posts 2.9.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/d93006ac-037f-4291-b945-afa38358a037

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