Front User Submit | Front Editor <= 3.8.4 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting

2023-06-27 00:00
Anonymous

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.8.5
Affected Plugin
Guest posting / Frontend Posting / Front Editor – WP Front User Submit
Affected Version
< 3.8.5
CVSS
6.4Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE pending
View all Guest posting / Frontend Posting / Front Editor – WP Front User Submit vulnerabilities

At a glance

This record tracks a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Guest posting / Frontend Posting / Front Editor WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 3.8.5. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Subscriber level or above. The issue is fixed in version 3.8.5; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2023.

Vulnerability Overview

The Front User Submit | Front Editor plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via field labels in versions up to, and including, 3.8.4 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level permissions and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

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

Reaching this weakness in Guest posting / Frontend Posting / Front Editor < 3.8.5 takes an account at Subscriber level or above. 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 Guest posting / Frontend Posting / Front Editor the fix is 3.8.5: builds < 3.8.5 are affected, anything from 3.8.5 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.8.5, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Subscriber 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: Guest posting / Frontend Posting / Front Editor 3.8.5 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/5bc03b4a-f7ec-4827-b914-0560b9268b6f

Related records

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