CVE-2022-2516

Visual Composer Website Builder <= 45.0 - Authenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via 'Title'

2022-08-29 00:00
Zhouyuan Yang

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 45.0.1
Affected Plugin
Visual Composer Website Builder
Affected Version
<= 45.0
CVSS
6.4Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2022-2516
View all Visual Composer Website Builder vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-2516 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Visual Composer Website Builder WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 45.0. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account. The issue is fixed in version 45.0.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2022, reported by Zhouyuan Yang.

Vulnerability Overview

The Visual Composer Website Builder plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the post/page 'Title' value in versions up to, and including, 45.0 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with access to the visual composer editor to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

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')

Visual Composer Website Builder <= 45.0 carries this weakness at Title, and reaching it takes any authenticated account. 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 Visual Composer Website Builder the fix is 45.0.1: builds <= 45.0 are affected, anything from 45.0.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 45.0.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Visual Composer Website Builder: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Visual Composer Website Builder 45.0.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-2516https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/26c7be89-a83d-4912-aef5-4cc046b5d768https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-2516

Related records

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