CVE-2022-4021

Permalink Manager Lite <= 2.2.20.1 - Cross-Site Request Forgery

2022-11-16 00:00
Marco Wotschka

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2.2.20.2
Affected Plugin
Permalink Manager Lite
Affected Version
<= 2.2.20.1
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE
CVE-2022-4021
View all Permalink Manager Lite vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-4021 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Permalink Manager Lite WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.2.20.1. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.2.20.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed November 2022, reported by Marco Wotschka.

Vulnerability Overview

The Permalink Manager Lite plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 2.2.20.1. This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on the extra_actions function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to change plugin settings including permalinks and site maps, via forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

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-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Reaching this weakness in Permalink Manager Lite <= 2.2.20.1 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site request forgery abuses the fact that browsers attach a victim's cookies to any request, so a state-changing action that only checks who you are, not whether you meant to act, can be triggered from another site.

An attacker who gets a logged-in user to load a crafted page can perform that action as them, with the impact scaling to whatever the victim's role is allowed to do. For Permalink Manager Lite the fix is 2.2.20.2: builds <= 2.2.20.1 are affected, anything from 2.2.20.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.2.20.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Permalink Manager Lite: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Permalink Manager Lite 2.2.20.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-4021https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/1718f2eb-6235-498f-8c1e-402c1caf7d02https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-4021

Related records

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