Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.0.3
- Affected Plugin
- PHP Everywhere
- Affected Version
<= 2.0.2- CVSS
- 8.8High
- Weakness type
- CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
- CVE
CVE-2021-23227
At a glance
CVE-2021-23227 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the PHP Everywhere WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.0.2. 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 2.0.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2022, reported by Rasi Afeef.
Vulnerability Overview
The PHP Everywhere plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 2.0.2. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to conduct unspecified potential attacks 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 PHP Everywhere <= 2.0.2 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 PHP Everywhere the fix is 2.0.3: builds <= 2.0.2 are affected, anything from 2.0.3 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.0.3, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to PHP Everywhere: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: PHP Everywhere 2.0.3 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C