Easy WP SMTP <= 1.5.1 - Authenticated (Admin+) Remote Code Execution
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.5.2
- Affected Plugin
- Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more
- Affected Version
<= 1.5.1- CVSS
- 7.2High
- Weakness type
- CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
- CVE
CVE-2022-42699
At a glance
CVE-2022-42699 is a high-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the Easy WP SMTP WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.5.1. It carries a CVSS score of 7.2 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Admin level or above. The issue is fixed in version 1.5.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed November 2022, reported by TomS (Rand0mGen).
Vulnerability Overview
The Easy WP SMTP plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution in versions up to, and including, 1.5.1 possibly via the 'admin_init' function (as part of the SMTP import/export functionality). This allows administrator-level attackers to execute code on the server.
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-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
Easy WP SMTP <= 1.5.1 carries this weakness at admin_init, and reaching it takes an account at Admin level or above. Code injection means input from a request reaches a language construct that evaluates code, so the attacker's text is executed rather than treated as data.
The injected code runs with the web server's privileges, giving the attacker the same access to the database and filesystem as WordPress itself. For Easy WP SMTP the fix is 1.5.2: builds <= 1.5.1 are affected, anything from 1.5.2 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.5.2, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
An attacker needs Admin 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. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Easy WP SMTP 1.5.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Scanner
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more
- 9.8CVE-2019-25141: Easy WP SMTP <= 1.3.9 Arbitrary Options Update
CVE-2019-25141 - 8.1CVE-2020-35234: Easy WP SMTP <= 1.4.2 Sensitive Information Disclosure
CVE-2020-35234 - 7.2CVE-2022-3334: Easy WP SMTP <= 1.4.9 PHP Object Injection
CVE-2022-3334 - 6.5CVE-2022-45829: Easy WP SMTP <= 1.5.1 Arbitrary File Deletion
CVE-2022-45829 - 6.1CVE-2017-7723: Easy WP SMTP <= 1.2.4 Cross-Site Scripting
CVE-2017-7723 - 2.7CVE-2024-3073: Easy WP SMTP… Exposure of Sensitive Information
CVE-2024-3073 - 2.7CVE-2022-45833: Easy WP SMTP <= 1.5.1 Directory Traversal
CVE-2022-45833
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