CVE-2021-24613

Post Views Counter <= 1.3.4 - Authenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting

2021-08-23 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 1.3.5
Affected Plugin: Post Views Counter
Affected Version: <= 1.3.4
CVSS: 4.8Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2021-24613

View all Post Views Counter vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-24613 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Post Views Counter WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.3.4. It carries a CVSS score of 4.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account. The issue is fixed in version 1.3.5; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2021, reported by Tung Duong Dinh.

Vulnerability Overview

The Post Views Counter WordPress plugin before 1.3.5 does not sanitise or escape its Post Views Label settings, which could allow high privilege users to perform Cross-Site Scripting attacks in the frontend even when the unfiltered_html capability is disallowed

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed.

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

Reaching this weakness in Post Views Counter <= 1.3.4 takes any authenticated account. 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 Views Counter the fix is 1.3.5: builds <= 1.3.4 are affected, anything from 1.3.5 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.3.5, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Post Views Counter: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Post Views Counter 1.3.5 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-24613 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/3e76c4b3-af77-4c02-a923-f04a360fa6e0 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24613

Related records

CVSS Vector

4.8

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

Base

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

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