CVE-2021-36917

Hide My WP <= 6.2.3 - Authorization Bypass

2021-11-24 14:14

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 6.2.4
Affected Plugin: Hide My WP - Amazing Security Plugin for WordPress!
Affected Version: <= 6.2.3
CVSS: 7.5High
Weakness type: CWE-284 · Improper Access Control
CVE: CVE-2021-36917

View all Hide My WP - Amazing Security Plugin for WordPress! vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-36917 is a high-severity Improper Access Control vulnerability in the Hide My WP - Amazing Security Plugin for WordPress! WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 6.2.3. It carries a CVSS score of 7.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 6.2.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed November 2021, reported by Dave Jong.

Vulnerability Overview

WordPress Hide My WP plugin (versions <= 6.2.3) can be deactivated by any unauthenticated user. It is possible to retrieve a reset token which can then be used to deactivate the plugin.

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, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on availability.

CWE-284: Improper Access Control

Reaching this weakness in Hide My WP - Amazing Security Plugin for WordPress! <= 6.2.3 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Improper access control means the code decides what a caller may do using something other than their actual permissions, so the decision can be wrong without any check appearing to be missing.

Whoever can shape the request decides the answer, so the protected action runs for callers the code never meant to allow. For Hide My WP - Amazing Security Plugin for WordPress! the fix is 6.2.4: builds <= 6.2.3 are affected, anything from 6.2.4 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 6.2.4, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: Hide My WP - Amazing Security Plugin for WordPress! 6.2.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-36917 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/3283f2b7-28a5-4c39-aeef-3237ecc57cf3 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-36917

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in Hide My WP - Amazing Security Plugin for WordPress!

CVSS Vector

7.5

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityNone
IntegrityNone
AvailabilityHigh

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