Photospace Gallery <= 2.3.5 - Missing Authorization to Plugin Settings Update
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- Photospace Gallery
- Affected Version
<= 2.3.5- CVSS
- 6.5Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-285 · Improper Authorization
- CVE
CVE-2022-38135
At a glance
CVE-2022-38135 is a medium-severity Improper Authorization vulnerability in the Photospace Gallery WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.3.5. It carries a CVSS score of 6.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high integrity impact). The root cause is a missing authorization check on a reachable function. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed September 2022, reported by Tien Nguyen Ahn.
Vulnerability Overview
The Photospace Gallery plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass due to a missing capability check on its settings updatefunction in versions up to, and including, 2.3.5. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level permissions and above, to update the plugin's settings.
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 integrity.
CWE-285: Improper Authorization
Reaching this weakness in Photospace Gallery <= 2.3.5 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Improper authorization means a permission check exists but does not cover the case being exercised, so a caller who is allowed to do one thing is allowed to do a neighbouring thing as well.
A lower-privileged account performs an action reserved for a higher one, which on a multi-author or membership site means an ordinary user reaching administrative behaviour. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for Photospace Gallery yet, so installs running <= 2.3.5 stay exposed until the vendor ships one.
Remediation
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
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. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Photospace Gallery
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