CVE-2022-41136

Shortcodes Ultimate <= 5.12.0 - Cross-Site Request Forgery

2022-10-13 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 5.12.1
Affected Plugin: Shortcodes Ultimate – Content Elements
Affected Version: <= 5.12.0
CVSS: 8.8High
Weakness type: CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE: CVE-2022-41136

View all Shortcodes Ultimate – Content Elements vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-41136 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Shortcodes Ultimate WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 5.12.0. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 5.12.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2022, reported by Dave Jong.

Vulnerability Overview

The Shortcodes Ultimate plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 5.12.0. This is due to missing nonce validation on the ajax_add_preset() function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to make preset changes and inject malicious JavaScript via a forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Shortcodes Ultimate <= 5.12.0 carries this weakness at ajax_add_preset(), 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 Shortcodes Ultimate the fix is 5.12.1: builds <= 5.12.0 are affected, anything from 5.12.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 5.12.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Shortcodes Ultimate: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Shortcodes Ultimate 5.12.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-41136 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/431331aa-4d9f-41f2-a522-567bbd9b8831 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-41136

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Shortcodes Ultimate – Content Elements

CVSS Vector

8.8

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionRequired
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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