Crayon Syntax Highlighter <= 2.8.4 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Server Side Request Forgery
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- Crayon Syntax Highlighter
- Affected Version
<= 2.8.4- CVSS
- 6.4Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-918 · Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
- CVE
CVE-2023-4893
At a glance
CVE-2023-4893 is a medium-severity Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in the Crayon Syntax Highlighter WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.8.4. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Contributor level or above. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed September 2023, reported by István Márton.
Vulnerability Overview
The Crayon Syntax Highlighter plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Server Side Request Forgery via the 'crayon' shortcode in versions up to, and including, 2.8.4. This can allow authenticated attackers with contributor-level permissions or above to make web requests to arbitrary locations originating from the web application and can be used to query and modify information from internal services.
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.
CWE-918: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
Crayon Syntax Highlighter <= 2.8.4 carries this weakness at crayon, and reaching it takes an account at Contributor level or above. Server-side request forgery means the application fetches a URL supplied by the caller, turning the server into a proxy for requests the attacker could not make directly.
The request originates from inside the hosting network, which is how these flaws reach cloud metadata endpoints, internal admin panels and services that trust local traffic. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for Crayon Syntax Highlighter yet, so installs running <= 2.8.4 stay exposed until the vendor ships one.
Remediation
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
How does WordSec protect against this?
An attacker needs Contributor 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. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Crayon Syntax Highlighter
- 9.8Crayon Syntax Highlighter Plugin <= 1.13 Remote File Inclusion
- 8.8CVE-2022-47167: Crayon Syntax Highlighter <= 2.8.4 CSRF
CVE-2022-47167 - 6.5Crayon Syntax Highlighter <= 2.6.10 Directory Traversal
- 6.1CVE-2016-10893: Crayon Syntax Highlighter < 2.8.4 Cross-Site Scripting
CVE-2016-10893 - 5.4Crayon Syntax Highlighter 2.0 - 2.6.10 Missing Authorization
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C