Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.0.11
- Affected Plugin
- HMS Testimonials
- Affected Version
< 2.0.11- CVSS
- 7.1High
- Weakness type
- CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
- CVE
CVE-2013-4240
At a glance
CVE-2013-4240 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the HMS Testimonials WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 2.0.11. It carries a CVSS score of 7.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high integrity impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.0.11; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2013, reported by Adéla Goldová.
Vulnerability Overview
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in the HMS Testimonials plugin before 2.0.11 for WordPress allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators for requests that (1) add new testimonials via the hms-testimonials-addnew page, (2) add new groups via the hms-testimonials-addnewgroup page, (3) change default settings via the hms-testimonials-settings page, (4) change advanced settings via the hms-testimonials-settings-advanced page, (5) change custom fields settings via the hms-testimonials-settings-fields page, or (6) change template settings via the hms-testimonials-templates-new page to wp-admin/admin.php.
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. A successful exploit has high impact on integrity.
CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
Reaching this weakness in HMS Testimonials < 2.0.11 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 HMS Testimonials the fix is 2.0.11: builds < 2.0.11 are affected, anything from 2.0.11 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.0.11, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to HMS Testimonials: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: HMS Testimonials 2.0.11 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in HMS Testimonials
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C