Login as User or Customer <= 2.1 - Cross-Site Request Forgery to Arbitrary Plugin Installation/Activation

2021-04-22 00:00
WPScanTeam

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2.1
Affected Plugin
Login as User or Customer — User Switching
Affected Version
<= 1.9
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE
CVE pending
View all Login as User or Customer — User Switching vulnerabilities

At a glance

This record tracks a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Login as User or Customer WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.9. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2021, reported by WPScanTeam.

Vulnerability Overview

The Login as User or Customer Plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 2.1. This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on the 'cp_plugins_do_button_job_later_callback' AJAX action. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to install and activate other plugins via a forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

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 confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Login as User or Customer <= 1.9 carries this weakness at cp_plugins_do_button_job_later_callback, and reaching it 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 Login as User or Customer the fix is 2.1: builds <= 1.9 are affected, anything from 2.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Login as User or Customer: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Login as User or Customer 2.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/c873d838-58e8-4f69-bccb-6d1de8d91877

Related records

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