CVE-2022-0439

Email Subscribers & Newsletters <= 5.3.1 - Authenticated (or Cross-Site Request Forgery) Blind SQL Injection

2022-02-11 00:00
Krzysztof Zając

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 5.3.2
Affected Plugin
Email Subscribers & Newsletters – Email Marketing, Post Notifications & Newsletter Plugin for WordPress
Affected Version
< 5.3.2
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-89 · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')
CVE
CVE-2022-0439
View all Email Subscribers & Newsletters – Email Marketing, Post Notifications & Newsletter Plugin for WordPress vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-0439 is a high-severity Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') vulnerability in the Email Subscribers & Newsletters WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 5.3.2. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at or Cross-Site Request Forgery level or above. The issue is fixed in version 5.3.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2022, reported by Krzysztof Zając.

Vulnerability Overview

The Email Subscribers & Newsletters WordPress plugin before 5.3.2 does not correctly escape the `order` and `orderby` parameters to the `ajax_fetch_report_list` action, making it vulnerable to blind SQL injection attacks by users with roles as low as Subscriber. Further, it does not have any CSRF protection in place for the action, allowing an attacker to trick any logged in user to perform the action by clicking 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 interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')

Reaching this weakness in Email Subscribers & Newsletters < 5.3.2 takes an account at or Cross-Site Request Forgery level or above. SQL injection happens when request data is concatenated into a query instead of being bound as a parameter, letting an attacker change the structure of the statement rather than just its values.

A working injection can read any table the database user can see, which on a WordPress install means user records, password hashes and session or API secrets stored in options. For Email Subscribers & Newsletters the fix is 5.3.2: builds < 5.3.2 are affected, anything from 5.3.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 5.3.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs or Cross-Site Request Forgery 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. None of that substitutes for the fix: Email Subscribers & Newsletters 5.3.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-0439https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/8b9e3aaf-5182-4622-9b5b-d67af200e2b6https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-0439

Related records

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