CVE-2023-3977

Inisev Plugins (Various Versions) - Cross-Site Request Forgery on handle_installation function

2023-07-27 00:00
Chloe Chamberland

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.5.8
Affected Plugin
Enhanced Text Widget
Affected Version
<= 1.5.7
CVSS
4.3Medium
Weakness type
CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE
CVE-2023-3977
View all Enhanced Text Widget vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-3977 is a medium-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Enhanced Text Widget WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.5.7. It carries a CVSS score of 4.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.5.8; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2023, reported by Chloe Chamberland.

Vulnerability Overview

Several plugins for WordPress by Inisev are vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery to unauthorized installation of plugins due to a missing nonce check on the handle_installation function that is called via the inisev_installation AJAX aciton in various versions. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to install plugins from the limited list via a forged request granted they can trick a site administrator 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-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Reaching this weakness in Enhanced Text Widget <= 1.5.7 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site request forgery abuses the fact that browsers attach a victim's cookies to any request, so a state-changing action that only checks who you are, not whether you meant to act, can be triggered from another site.

An attacker who gets a logged-in user to load a crafted page can perform that action as them, with the impact scaling to whatever the victim's role is allowed to do. For Enhanced Text Widget the fix is 1.5.8: builds <= 1.5.7 are affected, anything from 1.5.8 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.5.8, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Enhanced Text Widget: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Enhanced Text Widget 1.5.8 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-3977https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/ab7c8926-c762-49b1-bc97-4b7a2f4f97fchttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-3977

Related records

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