CVE-2023-4819

Shared Files <= 1.7.5 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting

2023-09-21 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 1.7.6
Affected Plugin: Shared Files – File Upload & Download Manager
Affected Version: <= 1.7.5
CVSS: 7.2High
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2023-4819

View all Shared Files – File Upload & Download Manager vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-4819 is a high-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Shared Files WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.7.5. It carries a CVSS score of 7.2 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.7.6; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2023, reported by Zeyad Alshahrani.

Vulnerability Overview

The Shared Files – Advanced File Sharing & Download Manager with Frontend Uploads plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via uploaded file content in all versions up to, and including, 1.7.5 due to the plugin not returning the correct 'Content-Type' header when viewing uploaded files. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in uploaded files that will execute whenever a user accesses the injected upload.

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.

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

Shared Files <= 1.7.5 carries this weakness at Content-Type, and reaching it takes no account at all. 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 Shared Files the fix is 1.7.6: builds <= 1.7.5 are affected, anything from 1.7.6 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.7.6, 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: Shared Files 1.7.6 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-2023-4819 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/7c4fc322-1f62-48e3-8177-4894c947624b https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-4819

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Shared Files – File Upload & Download Manager

CVSS Vector

7.2

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

Base

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

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