CVE-2023-3130

Short URL <= 1.6.4 - Authenticated(Admin+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting

2023-07-10 00:00
Bob Matyas

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.6.5
Affected Plugin
Short URL
Affected Version
1.6.4
CVSS
4.4Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2023-3130
View all Short URL vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-3130 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Short URL WordPress plugin, affecting versions 1.6.4. It carries a CVSS score of 4.4 (reachable over the network). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Admin level or above. The issue is fixed in version 1.6.5; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2023, reported by Bob Matyas.

Vulnerability Overview

The Short URL plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'url_externe' parameter due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping in versions up to, and including, 1.6.4. 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.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, and no interaction from a victim user.

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

Short URL 1.6.4 carries this weakness at url_externe, and reaching it takes an account at Admin 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 Short URL the fix is 1.6.5: builds 1.6.4 are affected, anything from 1.6.5 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.6.5, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Admin 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: Short URL 1.6.5 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-3130https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/814fcd67-9788-4392-8910-7a2bc8782fd8https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-3130

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C