CVE-2022-0653

Profile Builder - User Profile & User Registration Forms <= 3.6.1 - Cross-Site Scripting via site_url Parameter

2022-02-17 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 3.6.2
Affected Plugin: User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor
Affected Version: <= 3.6.1
CVSS: 6.1Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2022-0653

View all User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-0653 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the User Profile Builder WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.6.1. 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 3.6.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2022, reported by Chloe Chamberland.

Vulnerability Overview

The Profile Builder – User Profile & User Registration Forms WordPress plugin is vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting due to insufficient escaping and sanitization of the site_url parameter found in the ~/assets/misc/fallback-page.php file which allows attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts onto a pages that executes whenever a user clicks on a specially crafted link by an attacker. This affects versions up to and including 3.6.1.

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 User Profile Builder <= 3.6.1 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 User Profile Builder the fix is 3.6.2: builds <= 3.6.1 are affected, anything from 3.6.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.6.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to User Profile Builder: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: User Profile Builder 3.6.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-0653 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/c8661bd7-65b7-4277-81a0-fd410ae0ee1b https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-0653

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor

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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