Responsive Tabs with WooCommerce Product Tab Extension <= 3.5.4 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary Option Update
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 3.6.0
- Affected Version
< 3.6.0- CVSS
- 9.8Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-285 · Improper Authorization
- CVE
CVE pending
At a glance
This record tracks a critical-severity Improper Authorization vulnerability in the Tabs WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 3.6.0. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 3.6.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed December 2021.
Vulnerability Overview
The Responsive Tabs with WooCommerce Product Tab Extension plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass due to missing capability checks in versions up to, and including, 3.5.4. As a result, unauthenticated users could update arbitrary 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, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-285: Improper Authorization
Reaching this weakness in Tabs < 3.6.0 takes no account at all. Improper authorization means a permission check exists but does not cover the case being exercised, so a caller who is allowed to do one thing is allowed to do a neighbouring thing as well.
A lower-privileged account performs an action reserved for a higher one, which on a multi-author or membership site means an ordinary user reaching administrative behaviour. For Tabs the fix is 3.6.0: builds < 3.6.0 are affected, anything from 3.6.0 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 3.6.0, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
This one needs no account at all, which puts it outside what login hardening can reach; WordSec's login security narrows the account-level paths around it, and the firewall is what inspects the request itself. None of that substitutes for the fix: Tabs 3.6.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Tabs – Responsive Tabs with WooCommerce Product Tab Extension
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