VM Backups <= 1.0 - Cross-Site Request Forgery to Cross-Site Scripting
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- VM Backups
- Affected Version
<= 1.0- CVSS
- 8.8High
- Weakness type
- CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
- CVE
CVE-2021-24173
At a glance
CVE-2021-24173 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the VM Backups WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.0. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed March 2021, reported by 0xB9.
Vulnerability Overview
The VM Backups WordPress plugin through 1.0 does not have CSRF checks, allowing attackers to make a logged in user unwanted actions, such as update the plugin's options, leading to a Stored Cross-Site Scripting issue.
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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
Reaching this weakness in VM Backups <= 1.0 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. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for VM Backups yet, so installs running <= 1.0 stay exposed until the vendor ships one.
Remediation
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to VM Backups: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
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