CVE-2022-29448

Herd Effects <= 5.2 - Local File Inclusion

2022-05-16 06:54
0xB9

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 5.2.1
Affected Plugin
Social Proof Popups & Real-Time Notifications – Herd Effects
Affected Version
<= 5.2
CVSS
7.2High
Weakness type
CWE-98 · Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion')
CVE
CVE-2022-29448
View all Social Proof Popups & Real-Time Notifications – Herd Effects vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-29448 is a high-severity Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion') vulnerability in the Social Proof Popups & Real-Time Notifications WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 5.2. It carries a CVSS score of 7.2 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). The issue is fixed in version 5.2.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2022, reported by 0xB9.

Vulnerability Overview

Authenticated (admin or higher user role) Local File Inclusion (LFI) vulnerability in Wow-Company's Herd Effects plugin <= 5.2 at WordPress.

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 interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-98: Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion')

Reaching this weakness in Social Proof Popups & Real-Time Notifications <= 5.2 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. PHP file inclusion means a path used by include or require is built from request data, so the file that gets executed is under the caller's influence.

Including an attacker-influenced file executes its contents, which is why this class is routinely chained with an upload or log-poisoning step to reach code execution. For Social Proof Popups & Real-Time Notifications the fix is 5.2.1: builds <= 5.2 are affected, anything from 5.2.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 5.2.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Social Proof Popups & Real-Time Notifications: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Social Proof Popups & Real-Time Notifications 5.2.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Scanner
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-29448https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/8acb86fa-50b4-45b3-9bf8-ef65679b85achttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-29448

Related records

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