CVE-2021-24382

Smart Slider 3 <= 3.5.0.8 - Authenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting

2021-06-07 00:00
Hardik Solanki

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.5.0.9
Affected Plugin
Smart Slider 3
Affected Version
< 3.5.0.9
CVSS
5.4Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2021-24382
View all Smart Slider 3 vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-24382 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Smart Slider 3 WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 3.5.0.9. It carries a CVSS score of 5.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account. The issue is fixed in version 3.5.0.9; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2021, reported by Hardik Solanki.

Vulnerability Overview

The Smart Slider 3 Free and pro WordPress plugins before 3.5.0.9 did not sanitise the Project Name before outputting it back in the page, leading to a Stored Cross-Site Scripting issue. By default, only administrator users could access the affected functionality, limiting the exploitability of the vulnerability. However, some WordPress admins may allow lesser privileged users to access the plugin's functionality, in which case, privilege escalation could be performed.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed.

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

Reaching this weakness in Smart Slider 3 < 3.5.0.9 takes any authenticated account. 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 Smart Slider 3 the fix is 3.5.0.9: builds < 3.5.0.9 are affected, anything from 3.5.0.9 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.5.0.9, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Smart Slider 3: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Smart Slider 3 3.5.0.9 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-24382https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/6c57f27b-2441-4f16-ab4b-bfb68b7b793fhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24382

Related records

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