CVE-2023-22689

Auto Affiliate Links <= 6.3 - Cross-Site Request Forgery via aalDeleteLink function

2023-02-02 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 6.3.0.1
Affected Plugin: Auto Affiliate Links
Affected Version: <= 6.3
CVSS: 4.3Medium
Weakness type: CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE: CVE-2023-22689

View all Auto Affiliate Links vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-22689 is a medium-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Auto Affiliate Links WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 6.3. It carries a CVSS score of 4.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 6.3.0.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2023, reported by Justiice.

Vulnerability Overview

The Auto Affiliate Links plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 6.3.0.1. This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on the aalDeleteLink() function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to delete links via a forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

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.

CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Auto Affiliate Links <= 6.3 carries this weakness at aalDeleteLink(), and reaching it 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. For Auto Affiliate Links the fix is 6.3.0.1: builds <= 6.3 are affected, anything from 6.3.0.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 6.3.0.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Auto Affiliate Links: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Auto Affiliate Links 6.3.0.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-22689 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/f738ecf3-5f10-43ab-b8ce-34ac41229e9b https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-22689

Related records

Same weakness class

CVSS Vector

4.3

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionRequired
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityNone
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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