CVE-2022-3904

MonsterInsights <= 8.9.0 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Google Analytics

2022-12-23 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 8.9.1
Affected Plugin: MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy)
Affected Version: <= 8.9.0
CVSS: 5.4Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2022-3904

View all MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-3904 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the MonsterInsights WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 8.9.0. It carries a CVSS score of 5.4 (reachable over the network). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 8.9.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed December 2022, reported by Grzegorz Niedziela.

Vulnerability Overview

The MonsterInsights plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via post titles and pages in versions up to, and including, 8.9.0 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on those values. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page if they are able to successfully spoof a request to Google Analytics.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, and no privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user.

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

Reaching this weakness in MonsterInsights <= 8.9.0 takes no account at all. 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 MonsterInsights the fix is 8.9.1: builds <= 8.9.0 are affected, anything from 8.9.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 8.9.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: MonsterInsights 8.9.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-3904 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/0388853e-4bf8-4627-876a-b842e7016de3 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-3904

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy)

CVSS Vector

5.4

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityHigh
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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