WordPress Related Posts <= 3.6.4 - Authenticated (Admin+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- WordPress Related Posts
- Affected Version
<= 3.6.4- CVSS
- 5.4Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE-2021-24211
At a glance
CVE-2021-24211 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the WordPress Related Posts WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.6.4. It carries a CVSS score of 5.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Admin level or above. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed March 2021, reported by Ganesh Bagaria.
Vulnerability Overview
The WordPress Related Posts plugin through 3.6.4 contains an authenticated (admin+) stored XSS vulnerability in the title field on the settings page. By exploiting that an attacker will be able to execute JavaScript code in the user's browser.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed.
CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
Reaching this weakness in WordPress Related Posts <= 3.6.4 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. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for WordPress Related Posts yet, so installs running <= 3.6.4 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?
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. 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
Other vulnerabilities in WordPress Related Posts
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