CVE-2021-4331

The Plus Addons for Elementor PRO <= 4.1.9 & The Plus Addons for Elementor <= 2.0.6 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Privilege Escalation

2021-04-14 00:00
Chloe Chamberland

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2.0.7
Affected Plugin
The Plus Addons for Elementor – Addons for Elementor, Page Templates, Widgets, Mega Menu, WooCommerce
Affected Version
<= 2.0.6
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
CVE
CVE-2021-4331
View all The Plus Addons for Elementor – Addons for Elementor, Page Templates, Widgets, Mega Menu, WooCommerce vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-4331 is a high-severity Missing Authorization vulnerability in the The Plus Addons for Elementor WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.0.6. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Contributor level or above. The issue is fixed in version 2.0.7; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2021, reported by Chloe Chamberland.

Vulnerability Overview

The Plus Addons for Elementor plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in versions up to, and including 4.1.9 (pro) and 2.0.6 (free). The plugin adds a registration form to the Elementor page builders functionality. As part of the registration form, users can choose which role to set as the default for users upon registration. This field is not hidden for lower-level users so any user with access to the Elementor page builder, such as contributors, can set the default role to administrator. Since contributors can not publish posts, only author+ users can elevate privileges without interaction via a site administrator (to approve a post).

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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-862: Missing Authorization

Reaching this weakness in The Plus Addons for Elementor <= 2.0.6 takes an account at Contributor level or above. A missing authorization check means a function is reachable by anyone who can reach the endpoint, because the code never asks whether the caller is allowed to perform the action.

Any user who can reach the endpoint gets to run an action reserved for higher-privileged roles, from reading protected data to changing settings or content. For The Plus Addons for Elementor the fix is 2.0.7: builds <= 2.0.6 are affected, anything from 2.0.7 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.0.7, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: The Plus Addons for Elementor 2.0.7 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-4331https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/96388c82-2392-42b3-b0a0-c3d92910fb5chttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-4331

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C