CVE-2022-4028

Simple:Press <= 6.8 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Profile Signatures

2022-11-29 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 6.8.1
Affected Plugin: Simple:Press Forum
Affected Version: <= 6.8
CVSS: 6.4Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2022-4028

View all Simple:Press Forum vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-4028 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Simple:Press Forum WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 6.8. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Subscriber level or above. The issue is fixed in version 6.8.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed November 2022, reported by Luca Greeb.

Vulnerability Overview

The Simple:Press plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'postitem' parameter manipulated during the profile-save action when modifying a profile signature in versions up to, and including, 6.8 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping that makes injecting object and embed tags possible. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with minimal permissions, such as a subscriber to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages when modifying a profile signature that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

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:Press Forum <= 6.8 carries this weakness at postitem, and reaching it takes an account at Subscriber 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 Simple:Press Forum the fix is 6.8.1: builds <= 6.8 are affected, anything from 6.8.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 6.8.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Subscriber 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: Simple:Press Forum 6.8.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-4028 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e77082a7-dd65-40e9-a1be-0144afa869ef https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-4028

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Simple:Press Forum

CVSS Vector

6.4

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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