CVE-2022-25610

Simple Ajax Chat <= 20220115 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting

2022-02-16 09:16

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 20220216
Affected Plugin: Simple Ajax Chat – Add a Fast, Secure Chat Box
Affected Version: <= 20220115
CVSS: 5.4Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2022-25610

View all Simple Ajax Chat – Add a Fast, Secure Chat Box vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-25610 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Simple Ajax Chat WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 20220115. It carries a CVSS score of 5.4 (reachable over the network). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 20220216; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2022, reported by Philippe Dourassov.

Vulnerability Overview

The Simple Ajax Chat plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting in versions up to, and including, 20220115 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. However, the attack requires specific conditions, making it hard to exploit.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, 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')

Reaching this weakness in Simple Ajax Chat <= 20220115 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 Simple Ajax Chat the fix is 20220216: builds <= 20220115 are affected, anything from 20220216 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 20220216, 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: Simple Ajax Chat 20220216 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-2022-25610 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/f6e2ab69-2714-4bf9-a9ad-035fc15450f2 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-25610

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Simple Ajax Chat – Add a Fast, Secure Chat Box

CVSS Vector

5.4

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

Base

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

This record contains material that is subject to copyright

CVE Usage: MITRE hereby grants you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE®). Any copy you make for such purposes is authorized provided that you reproduce MITRE's copyright designation and this license in any such copy.

https://www.cve.org/Legal/TermsOfUse

Defiant hereby grants you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute this software vulnerability information. Any copy of the software vulnerability information you make for such purposes is authorized provided that you include a hyperlink to this vulnerability record and reproduce Defiant's copyright designation and this license in any such copy.

https://www.wordfence.com/wordfence-intelligence-terms-and-conditions/