DW Question & Answer Pro <= 1.3.6 - Missing Authorization Checks
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.3.7
- Affected Plugin
- DW Question Answer Pro
- Affected Version
<= 1.3.6- CVSS
- 5.4Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-639 · Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key
- CVE
CVE-2021-24800
At a glance
CVE-2021-24800 is a medium-severity Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key vulnerability in the DW Question Answer Pro WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.3.6. It carries a CVSS score of 5.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The root cause is a missing authorization check on a reachable function. The issue is fixed in version 1.3.7; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2022, reported by Brandon James Roldan (tomorrowisnew).
Vulnerability Overview
The DW Question & Answer Pro WordPress plugin through 1.3.6 does not check that the comment to edit belongs to the user making the request, allowing any user to edit other comments.
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-639: Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key
Reaching this weakness in DW Question Answer Pro <= 1.3.6 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Authorization bypass through a user-controlled key, often called insecure direct object reference, means the application looks up a record by an identifier from the request without checking that the caller owns it.
Changing a number in the request is enough to read or modify other users' records, which on commerce and membership sites means customer data. For DW Question Answer Pro the fix is 1.3.7: builds <= 1.3.6 are affected, anything from 1.3.7 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.3.7, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: DW Question Answer Pro 1.3.7 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in DW Question Answer Pro
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