CVE-2021-34648

Ninja Forms <= 3.5.7 - Unprotected REST-API to Email Injection

2021-09-22 15:21
Chloe Chamberland

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.5.8
Affected Plugin
Ninja Forms – The Contact Form Builder That Grows With You
Affected Version
<= 3.5.7
CVSS
6.4Medium
Weakness type
CWE-863 · Incorrect Authorization
CVE
CVE-2021-34648
View all Ninja Forms – The Contact Form Builder That Grows With You vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-34648 is a medium-severity Incorrect Authorization vulnerability in the Ninja Forms WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.5.7. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 3.5.8; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2021, reported by Chloe Chamberland.

Vulnerability Overview

The Ninja Forms WordPress plugin is vulnerable to arbitrary email sending via the trigger_email_action function found in the ~/includes/Routes/Submissions.php file, in versions up to and including 3.5.7. This allows authenticated attackers to send arbitrary emails from the affected server via the /ninja-forms-submissions/email-action REST API which can be used to socially engineer victims.

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.

CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization

Reaching this weakness in Ninja Forms <= 3.5.7 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Incorrect authorization means a permission check exists but evaluates the wrong thing, so it passes for callers it was meant to stop.

The action runs for users the code intended to exclude, with the same effect as having no check at all. For Ninja Forms the fix is 3.5.8: builds <= 3.5.7 are affected, anything from 3.5.8 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.5.8, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: Ninja Forms 3.5.8 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-34648https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b5bdf526-8378-413f-b51e-24351dd0774bhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-34648

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C