CVE-2021-24889

Ninja Forms Contact Form <= 3.6.3 - Authenticated SQL Injection

2021-10-26 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 3.6.4
Affected Plugin: Ninja Forms – The Contact Form Builder That Grows With You
Affected Version: < 3.6.4
CVSS: 7.2High
Weakness type: CWE-89 · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')
CVE: CVE-2021-24889

View all Ninja Forms – The Contact Form Builder That Grows With You vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-24889 is a high-severity Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') vulnerability in the Ninja Forms WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 3.6.4. It carries a CVSS score of 7.2 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account. The issue is fixed in version 3.6.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2021, reported by ZhongFu Su.

Vulnerability Overview

The Ninja Forms Contact Form WordPress plugin before 3.6.4 does not escape keys of the fields POST parameter, which could allow high privilege users to perform SQL injections attacks

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-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')

Reaching this weakness in Ninja Forms < 3.6.4 takes any authenticated account. SQL injection happens when request data is concatenated into a query instead of being bound as a parameter, letting an attacker change the structure of the statement rather than just its values.

A working injection can read any table the database user can see, which on a WordPress install means user records, password hashes and session or API secrets stored in options. For Ninja Forms the fix is 3.6.4: builds < 3.6.4 are affected, anything from 3.6.4 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.6.4, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Ninja Forms: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Ninja Forms 3.6.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-24889 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/5340204a-8a4f-4e23-82a1-c228b884c34a https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24889

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Ninja Forms – The Contact Form Builder That Grows With You

CVSS Vector

7.2

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredHigh
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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