CVE-2023-28787

Quiz and Survey Master <= 8.1.4 - Unauthenticated SQL Injection

2023-04-16 00:00
Rafie Muhammad

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 8.1.5
Affected Plugin
Quiz and Survey Master (QSM) – Quiz Maker & Survey Maker
Affected Version
<= 8.1.4
CVSS
9.8Critical
Weakness type
CWE-89 · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')
CVE
CVE-2023-28787
View all Quiz and Survey Master (QSM) – Quiz Maker & Survey Maker vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-28787 is a critical-severity Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') vulnerability in the Quiz and Survey Master (QSM) WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 8.1.4. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 8.1.5; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2023, reported by Rafie Muhammad.

Vulnerability Overview

The Quiz and Survey Master plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to SQL Injection via the 'question_ids_[XX]' cookie in versions up to, and including, 8.1.4 due to insufficient escaping on the user supplied parameter and lack of sufficient preparation on the existing SQL query. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to append additional SQL queries into already existing queries that can be used to extract sensitive information from the database. This requires the 'Random Questions' setting to be enabled for a given quiz to be exploitable.

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, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')

Quiz and Survey Master (QSM) <= 8.1.4 carries this weakness at question_ids_[XX], and reaching it takes no account at all. SQL injection happens when request data is concatenated into a query instead of being bound as a parameter, letting an attacker change the structure of the statement rather than just its values.

A working injection can read any table the database user can see, which on a WordPress install means user records, password hashes and session or API secrets stored in options. For Quiz and Survey Master (QSM) the fix is 8.1.5: builds <= 8.1.4 are affected, anything from 8.1.5 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 8.1.5, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Quiz and Survey Master (QSM) 8.1.5 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-28787https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b29dcd7a-a0bc-4983-85ba-6ebf2c405cebhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-28787

Related records

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