CVE-2024-0592

Related Posts for WordPress <= 2.2.1 - Cross-Site Request Forgery

2024-03-13 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.2.2
Affected Plugin: Related Posts for WordPress
Affected Version: <= 2.2.1
CVSS: 5.4Medium
Weakness type: CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE: CVE-2024-0592

At a glance

CVE-2024-0592 is a medium-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Related Posts for WordPress WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.2.1. It carries a CVSS score of 5.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.2.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2024, reported by Krzysztof Zając.

Vulnerability Overview

The Related Posts for WordPress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in all versions up to, and including, 2.2.1. This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on the handle_create_link() function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to add related posts to other posts via a forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link. This ultimately makes it possible for attackers to view draft and password protected posts.

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-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Related Posts for WordPress <= 2.2.1 carries this weakness at handle_create_link(), and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site request forgery abuses the fact that browsers attach a victim's cookies to any request, so a state-changing action that only checks who you are, not whether you meant to act, can be triggered from another site.

An attacker who gets a logged-in user to load a crafted page can perform that action as them, with the impact scaling to whatever the victim's role is allowed to do. For Related Posts for WordPress the fix is 2.2.2: builds <= 2.2.1 are affected, anything from 2.2.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.2.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Related Posts for WordPress: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Related Posts for WordPress 2.2.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-0592 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/5d21aad7-dbee-4204-afbd-0a5fdeaca50e https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-0592

Related records

CVSS Vector

5.4

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

Base

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

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