Simple Post Notes <= 1.7.5 - Subscriber+ Stored Cross-Site Scripting
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.7.6
- Affected Plugin
- Simple Post Notes
- Affected Version
<= 1.7.5- CVSS
- 6.4Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE-2022-2186
At a glance
CVE-2022-2186 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Simple Post Notes WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.7.5. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 1.7.6; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2022.
Vulnerability Overview
The Simple Post Notes plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to subscriber+ Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'spnote' parameter saved via the save_bulkedit_note() function which gets called through the wp_ajax_spnote_save_bulk_edit AJAX action. This affects versions up to 1.7.6, and version 1.7.6 is still vulnerable to unauthorized post note changes by subscriber level users due to a missing capability check on the spnote_save_bulk_edit action.
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 interaction from a victim user.
CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
Simple Post Notes <= 1.7.5 carries this weakness at spnote, and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. 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 Post Notes 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?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Simple Post Notes: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Simple Post Notes 1.7.6 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
Other vulnerabilities in Simple Post Notes
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