CVE-2022-45840

Auto Affiliate Links <= 6.2.1.5 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Plugin Settings Change

2023-02-06 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 6.2.1.6
Affected Plugin: Auto Affiliate Links
Affected Version: <= 6.2.1.5
CVSS: 5.4Medium
Weakness type: CWE-284 · Improper Access Control
CVE: CVE-2022-45840

View all Auto Affiliate Links vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-45840 is a medium-severity Improper Access Control vulnerability in the Auto Affiliate Links WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 6.2.1.5. It carries a CVSS score of 5.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Subscriber level or above. The issue is fixed in version 6.2.1.6; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2023, reported by Nguyen Anh Tien.

Vulnerability Overview

The Auto Affiliate Links plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to improper access control via multiple AJAX actions in versions up to, and including, 6.2.1.5. This allows authenticated attackers with subscriber-level permissions or above to modify plugin settings such as adding exclusions for posts and words and to view statistics.

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-284: Improper Access Control

Reaching this weakness in Auto Affiliate Links <= 6.2.1.5 takes an account at Subscriber level or above. Improper access control means the code decides what a caller may do using something other than their actual permissions, so the decision can be wrong without any check appearing to be missing.

Whoever can shape the request decides the answer, so the protected action runs for callers the code never meant to allow. For Auto Affiliate Links the fix is 6.2.1.6: builds <= 6.2.1.5 are affected, anything from 6.2.1.6 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 6.2.1.6, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: Auto Affiliate Links 6.2.1.6 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-45840 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/7f787c75-7b27-4256-ac0c-abc2988ea7c8 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-45840

Related records

CVSS Vector

5.4

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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