CVE-2023-1472

RapidLoad Power-Up for Autoptimize <= 1.7.1 - Cross-Site Request Forgery

2023-03-17 00:00
Marco Wotschka

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.7.2
Affected Plugin
RapidLoad AI – Optimize Web Vitals Automatically
Affected Version
<= 1.7.1
CVSS
6.3Medium
Weakness type
CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE
CVE-2023-1472
View all RapidLoad AI – Optimize Web Vitals Automatically vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-1472 is a medium-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the RapidLoad AI WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.7.1. It carries a CVSS score of 6.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.7.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2023, reported by Marco Wotschka.

Vulnerability Overview

The RapidLoad Power-Up for Autoptimize plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 1.7.1. This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on its AJAX actions. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to invoke those functions, via forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link. Actions include resetting the API key, accessing or deleting log files, and deleting cache among others.

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 RapidLoad AI <= 1.7.1 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 RapidLoad AI the fix is 1.7.2: builds <= 1.7.1 are affected, anything from 1.7.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.7.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to RapidLoad AI: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: RapidLoad AI 1.7.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-1472https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/8f9ee168-82b1-4d13-a84e-379f16dcb283https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-1472

Related records

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