Thumbnail For Excerpts <= 2.1 - Cross-Site Request Forgery
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- Thumbnail For Excerpts
- Affected Version
<= 2.1- CVSS
- 8.8High
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE pending
At a glance
This record tracks a high-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Thumbnail For Excerpts WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.1. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed June 2022.
Vulnerability Overview
The Thumbnail For Excerpts plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 2.1 . This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on the tfe_add_admin() function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to modify the plugin's settings, via forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link. This vulnerability can also be used to update options.
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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
Thumbnail For Excerpts <= 2.1 carries this weakness at tfe_add_admin(), 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. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for Thumbnail For Excerpts yet, so installs running <= 2.1 stay exposed until the vendor ships one.
Remediation
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Thumbnail For Excerpts: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C