CVE-2022-0447

Post Grid < 2.1.16 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

2022-03-15 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.1.16
Affected Plugin: Post Grid
Affected Version: < 2.1.16
CVSS: 6.1Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2022-0447

At a glance

CVE-2022-0447 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Post Grid WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 2.1.16. It carries a CVSS score of 6.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.1.16; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2022, reported by Krzysztof Zając.

Vulnerability Overview

The Post Grid WordPress plugin before 2.1.16 does not sanitise and escape the post_types parameter before outputting it back in the response of the post_grid_update_taxonomies_terms_by_posttypes AJAX action, available to any authenticated users, leading to a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

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.

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

Reaching this weakness in Post Grid < 2.1.16 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 Post Grid the fix is 2.1.16: builds < 2.1.16 are affected, anything from 2.1.16 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.1.16, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Post Grid: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Post Grid 2.1.16 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-0447 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/668afa62-1326-4067-8d0a-f16788e85ae5 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-0447

Related records

Same weakness class

CVSS Vector

6.1

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionRequired
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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