CVE-2023-5845

Simple Social Media Share Buttons <= 5.1.0 - Unauthenticated Password Protected Post Disclosure

2023-12-06 00:00
Krzysztof Zając

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 5.1.1
Affected Version
<= 5.1.0
CVSS
5.3Medium
Weakness type
CWE-287 · Improper Authentication
CVE
CVE-2023-5845
View all Simple Social Media Share Buttons – Social Sharing for Everyone vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-5845 is a medium-severity Improper Authentication vulnerability in the Simple Social Media Share Buttons WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 5.1.0. It carries a CVSS score of 5.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 5.1.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed December 2023, reported by Krzysztof Zając.

Vulnerability Overview

The Simple Social Media Share Buttons – Social Sharing for Everyone plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Sensitive Information Exposure in all versions up to, and including, 5.1.0 via meta tags. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to retrieve data from password protected posts that may have sensitive information.

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-287: Improper Authentication

Reaching this weakness in Simple Social Media Share Buttons <= 5.1.0 takes no account at all. Improper authentication means the mechanism that proves who a caller is can be satisfied without the secret it was supposed to require.

An attacker authenticates as another user — administrators included — without ever knowing a password, so password policies and login rate limits never come into play. For Simple Social Media Share Buttons the fix is 5.1.1: builds <= 5.1.0 are affected, anything from 5.1.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 5.1.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

This one needs no account at all, which puts it outside what login hardening can reach; WordSec's login security narrows the account-level paths around it, and the firewall is what inspects the request itself. None of that substitutes for the fix: Simple Social Media Share Buttons 5.1.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

Related records

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