CVE-2021-24228

Patreon WordPress <= 1.7.0 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

2021-03-26 00:00
George Stephanis

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.7.2
Affected Plugin
Patreon WordPress
Affected Version
< 1.7.2
CVSS
9.6Critical
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2021-24228
View all Patreon WordPress vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-24228 is a critical-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Patreon WordPress WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 1.7.2. It carries a CVSS score of 9.6 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.7.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2021, reported by George Stephanis.

Vulnerability Overview

The Jetpack Scan team identified a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting in the Login Form of the Patreon WordPress plugin before 1.7.2. The WordPress login form (wp-login.php) is hooked by the plugin and offers to allow users to authenticate on the site using their Patreon account. Unfortunately, some of the error logging logic behind the scene allowed user-controlled input to be reflected on the login page, unsanitized.

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 confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

Reaching this weakness in Patreon WordPress < 1.7.2 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site scripting happens when input from a request is written into a page without being escaped for the context it lands in, so the browser parses attacker-supplied text as markup or script.

Injected script runs with the privileges of whoever views the affected page, which is how these flaws turn into administrator session theft, silent account creation or persistent backdoors in page content. For Patreon WordPress the fix is 1.7.2: builds < 1.7.2 are affected, anything from 1.7.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.7.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Patreon WordPress: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Patreon WordPress 1.7.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-24228https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/63b67652-d10e-4a5a-97d5-04e6c848b752https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24228

Related records

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