Newsletter Lite <= 4.9.2 - Authenticated (Admin+) Command Injection
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 4.9.3
- Affected Plugin
- Newsletters
- Affected Version
<= 4.9.2- CVSS
- 6.6Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-78 · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')
- CVE
CVE-2023-4797
At a glance
CVE-2023-4797 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection') vulnerability in the Newsletters WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 4.9.2. It carries a CVSS score of 6.6 (reachable over the network; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Admin level or above. The issue is fixed in version 4.9.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2023, reported by Karolis Narvilas.
Vulnerability Overview
The Newsletters plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Command Injection in all versions up to, and including, 4.9.2 via the emailarchive_olderthan parameter. This is due to insuffcient validation on user supplied input being passed to eval. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with administrator-level access and above, to execute code on the server.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-78: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')
The product constructs all or part of an OS command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended OS command when it is sent to a downstream component.
Remediation
Update to version 4.9.3, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
An attacker needs Admin access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: 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: Newsletters 4.9.3 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Scanner
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Newsletters
- 9.8CVE-2018-20987: Newsletters <= 4.6.8.5 Object Injection
CVE-2018-20987 - 9.1CVE-2024-32954: Newsletters <= 4.9.5 Arbitrary File Upload
CVE-2024-32954 - 8.8CVE-2024-8247: Newsletters <= 4.9.9.2 Privilege Escalation
CVE-2024-8247 - 8.8CVE-2019-14788: Newsletters <= 4.6.18 Directory Traversal
CVE-2019-14788 - 8.1CVE-2026-16267: Newsletters <= 4.15 PHP Object Injection
CVE-2026-16267 - 8.1CVE-2026-12583: Newsletters <= 4.14 PHP Object Injection
CVE-2026-12583 - 8.1CVE-2025-67911: Newsletters <= 4.11 PHP Object Injection
CVE-2025-67911 - 8.1CVE-2025-54034: Newsletters <= 4.10 Local File Inclusion
CVE-2025-54034
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C