CVE-2022-0376

User Meta <= 2.4.2 - Authenticated (Admin+) Cross-Site Scripting

2022-05-09 00:00
Niraj Mahajan

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2.4.3
Affected Version
<= 2.4.2
CVSS
5.5Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2022-0376
View all User Meta – User Profile Builder and User management plugin vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-0376 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the User Meta WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.4.2. It carries a CVSS score of 5.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Admin level or above. The issue is fixed in version 2.4.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2022, reported by Niraj Mahajan.

Vulnerability Overview

The User Meta WordPress plugin before 2.4.3 does not sanitise and escape the Form Name, as well as Shared Field Labels before outputting them in the admin dashboard when editing a form, which could allow high privilege users to perform Cross-Site Scripting attacks even when unfiltered_html is disallowed

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.

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

Reaching this weakness in User Meta <= 2.4.2 takes an account at Admin level or above. 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 User Meta the fix is 2.4.3: builds <= 2.4.2 are affected, anything from 2.4.3 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.4.3, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Admin access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: User Meta 2.4.3 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

Related records

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