CVE-2023-3343

User Registration <= 3.0.1 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) PHP Object Injection

2023-06-29 00:00
István Márton

At a glance

CVE-2023-3343 is a high-severity Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in the User Registration & Membership WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.0.1. 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 Subscriber level or above. The issue is fixed in version 3.0.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2023, reported by István Márton.

Vulnerability Overview

The User Registration plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to PHP Object Injection in versions up to, and including, 3.0.1 via deserialization of untrusted input from the 'profile-pic-url' parameter. This allows authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level permissions and above, to inject a PHP Object. No POP chain is present in the vulnerable plugin. If a POP chain is present via an additional plugin or theme installed on the target system, it could allow the attacker to delete arbitrary files, retrieve sensitive data, or execute code.

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-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data

User Registration & Membership <= 3.0.1 carries this weakness at profile-pic-url, and reaching it takes an account at Subscriber level or above. Deserialization of untrusted data means the application reconstructs objects from input a caller controls, letting the attacker choose which classes get instantiated and what their properties hold.

A workable chain turns deserialization into file writes, deletions or code execution, depending on what the loaded classes do in their magic methods. For User Registration & Membership the fix is 3.0.2: builds <= 3.0.1 are affected, anything from 3.0.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.0.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Subscriber 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. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: User Registration & Membership 3.0.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Scanner
  • Alerts

External References

Related records

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