CVE-2021-25055

FeedWordPress <= 2021.0713 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

2022-01-18 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2022.0123
Affected Plugin: FeedWordPress
Affected Version: <= 2021.0713
CVSS: 6.1Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2021-25055

At a glance

CVE-2021-25055 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the FeedWordPress WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2021.0713. It carries a CVSS score of 6.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2022.0123; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2022, reported by Hung Chien.

Vulnerability Overview

The FeedWordPress plugin before 2022.0123 is affected by a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) within the "visibility" parameter.

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-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

FeedWordPress <= 2021.0713 carries this weakness at visibility, and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site scripting happens when input from a request is written into a page without being escaped for the context it lands in, so the browser parses attacker-supplied text as markup or script.

Injected script runs with the privileges of whoever views the affected page, which is how these flaws turn into administrator session theft, silent account creation or persistent backdoors in page content. For FeedWordPress the fix is 2022.0123: builds <= 2021.0713 are affected, anything from 2022.0123 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2022.0123, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to FeedWordPress: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: FeedWordPress 2022.0123 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-25055 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/96320410-48e2-42a6-9a1e-1641c1229256 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-25055

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in FeedWordPress

CVSS Vector

6.1

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionRequired
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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