Inisev Plugins (Various Versions) - Cross-Site Request Forgery on handle_installation function
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.2.5
- Affected Plugin
- Ultimate Posts Widget
- Affected Version
<= 2.2.4- CVSS
- 4.3Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
- CVE
CVE-2023-3977
At a glance
CVE-2023-3977 is a medium-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Ultimate Posts Widget WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.2.4. It carries a CVSS score of 4.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.2.5; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2023, reported by Chloe Chamberland.
Vulnerability Overview
Several plugins for WordPress by Inisev are vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery to unauthorized installation of plugins due to a missing nonce check on the handle_installation function that is called via the inisev_installation AJAX aciton in various versions. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to install plugins from the limited list via a forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link.
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.
CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
Reaching this weakness in Ultimate Posts Widget <= 2.2.4 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site request forgery abuses the fact that browsers attach a victim's cookies to any request, so a state-changing action that only checks who you are, not whether you meant to act, can be triggered from another site.
An attacker who gets a logged-in user to load a crafted page can perform that action as them, with the impact scaling to whatever the victim's role is allowed to do. For Ultimate Posts Widget the fix is 2.2.5: builds <= 2.2.4 are affected, anything from 2.2.5 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.2.5, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Ultimate Posts Widget: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Ultimate Posts Widget 2.2.5 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
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