CVE-2022-3506

Related Posts for WordPress <= 2.1.2 - Authenticated (Administrator+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting

2022-10-24 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.1.3
Affected Plugin: Related Posts for WordPress
Affected Version: <= 2.1.2
CVSS: 5.5Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2022-3506

At a glance

CVE-2022-3506 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Related Posts for WordPress WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.1.2. It carries a CVSS score of 5.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Administrator level or above. The issue is fixed in version 2.1.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2022, reported by Marco Wotschka.

Vulnerability Overview

The Related Posts for WordPress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the ‘heading_text’ parameter in versions up to, and including, 2.1.2 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with administrator-level permissions and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. Note, this vulnerability was independently found by two researchers.

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 interaction from a victim user.

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

Related Posts for WordPress <= 2.1.2 carries this weakness at heading_text, and reaching it takes an account at Administrator level or above. 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 Related Posts for WordPress the fix is 2.1.3: builds <= 2.1.2 are affected, anything from 2.1.3 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.1.3, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Administrator access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Related Posts for WordPress 2.1.3 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-3506 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/797c2c60-51bd-4992-86fc-23fda363ad76 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-3506

Related records

Same weakness class

CVSS Vector

5.5

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

Base

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

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