CVE-2019-19984

Email Subscribers & Newsletters <= 4.2.2 - Missing Authorization

2019-11-13 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 4.2.3
Affected Plugin: Email Subscribers & Newsletters – Email Marketing, Post Notifications & Newsletter Plugin for WordPress
Affected Version: <= 4.2.2
CVSS: 6.3Medium
Weakness type: CWE-863 · Incorrect Authorization
CVE: CVE-2019-19984

View all Email Subscribers & Newsletters – Email Marketing, Post Notifications & Newsletter Plugin for WordPress vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2019-19984 is a medium-severity Incorrect Authorization vulnerability in the Email Subscribers & Newsletters WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 4.2.2. It carries a CVSS score of 6.3 (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 4.2.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed November 2019, reported by Chloe Chamberland.

Vulnerability Overview

The WordPress plugin, Email Subscribers & Newsletters, before 4.2.3 had a flaw that allowed users with edit_post capabilities to manage plugin settings and email campaigns.

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-863: Incorrect Authorization

Reaching this weakness in Email Subscribers & Newsletters <= 4.2.2 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Incorrect authorization means a permission check exists but evaluates the wrong thing, so it passes for callers it was meant to stop.

The action runs for users the code intended to exclude, with the same effect as having no check at all. For Email Subscribers & Newsletters the fix is 4.2.3: builds <= 4.2.2 are affected, anything from 4.2.3 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 4.2.3, 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: Email Subscribers & Newsletters 4.2.3 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-19984 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/49008e63-d369-49b8-9dd7-3dff6dbea17c https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-19984

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in Email Subscribers & Newsletters – Email Marketing, Post Notifications & Newsletter Plugin for WordPress

CVSS Vector

6.3

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityLow

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