Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.4
- Affected Plugin
- LWS Tools
- Affected Version
<= 2.3.1- CVSS
- 7.1High
- Weakness type
- CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
- CVE
CVE-2023-27453
At a glance
CVE-2023-27453 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the LWS Tools WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.3.1. It carries a CVSS score of 7.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2023, reported by Abdi Pranata.
Vulnerability Overview
The LWS Tools plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 2.3.1. This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on 'lws_tk_create_page' function and several AJAX actions. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to modify the database prefix, modify plugin settings, delete comments, and perform other actions 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 availability.
CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
LWS Tools <= 2.3.1 carries this weakness at lws_tk_create_page, 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 LWS Tools the fix is 2.4: builds <= 2.3.1 are affected, anything from 2.4 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.4, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to LWS Tools: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: LWS Tools 2.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in LWS Tools
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