CVE-2021-25031

Image Hover Effects Ultimate <= 9.7.0 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting via effects

2021-12-27 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 9.7.1
Affected Plugin: Image Hover Effects Ultimate ( Image Gallery, Effects, Lightbox, Comparison & Magnifier )
Affected Version: <= 9.7.0
CVSS: 6.1Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2021-25031

View all Image Hover Effects Ultimate ( Image Gallery, Effects, Lightbox, Comparison & Magnifier ) vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-25031 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Image Hover Effects Ultimate ( Image Gallery, Effects, Lightbox, Comparison & Magnifier ) WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 9.7.0. 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 9.7.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed December 2021, reported by Krzysztof Zając.

Vulnerability Overview

The Image Hover Effects Ultimate (Image Gallery, Effects, Lightbox, Comparison or Magnifier) WordPress plugin before 9.7.1 does not escape the effects parameter before outputting it back in an attribute in an admin page, leading to a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

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')

Reaching this weakness in Image Hover Effects Ultimate ( Image Gallery, Effects, Lightbox, Comparison & Magnifier ) <= 9.7.0 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 Image Hover Effects Ultimate ( Image Gallery, Effects, Lightbox, Comparison & Magnifier ) the fix is 9.7.1: builds <= 9.7.0 are affected, anything from 9.7.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 9.7.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Image Hover Effects Ultimate ( Image Gallery, Effects, Lightbox, Comparison & Magnifier ): WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Image Hover Effects Ultimate ( Image Gallery, Effects, Lightbox, Comparison & Magnifier ) 9.7.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-25031 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/4d902dfe-f16d-4795-9fcf-ee454b3d8c56 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-25031

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Image Hover Effects Ultimate ( Image Gallery, Effects, Lightbox, Comparison & Magnifier )

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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