Smash Balloon Plugins (Various Versions) - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

2021-07-20 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 1.8.2
Affected Plugin: Custom Twitter Feeds – A Tweets Widget or X Feed Widget
Affected Version: <= 1.8.1
CVSS: 6.1Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE pending

View all Custom Twitter Feeds – A Tweets Widget or X Feed Widget vulnerabilities

At a glance

This record tracks a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Custom Twitter Feeds WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.8.1. It carries a CVSS score of 6.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.8.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2021, reported by WPScanTeam.

Vulnerability Overview

Several Smash Balloon Plugins for WordPress are vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting via URLs in various versions due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping with the use of add_query_arg. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that execute if they can successfully trick a user 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-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

Reaching this weakness in Custom Twitter Feeds <= 1.8.1 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site scripting happens when input from a request is written into a page without being escaped for the context it lands in, so the browser parses attacker-supplied text as markup or script.

Injected script runs with the privileges of whoever views the affected page, which is how these flaws turn into administrator session theft, silent account creation or persistent backdoors in page content. For Custom Twitter Feeds the fix is 1.8.2: builds <= 1.8.1 are affected, anything from 1.8.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.8.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Custom Twitter Feeds: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Custom Twitter Feeds 1.8.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/0efff314-b14f-4af4-b225-ba7e41d01b2e

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Custom Twitter Feeds – A Tweets Widget or X Feed Widget

CVSS Vector

6.1

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionRequired
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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