Auto Affiliate Links <= 6.4.2.5 - Cross-Site Request Forgery

2023-11-20 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 6.4.2.6
Affected Plugin: Auto Affiliate Links
Affected Version: <= 6.4.2.5
CVSS: 4.3Medium
Weakness type: CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE: CVE pending

View all Auto Affiliate Links vulnerabilities

At a glance

This record tracks a medium-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Auto Affiliate Links WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 6.4.2.5. 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 6.4.2.6; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed November 2023.

Vulnerability Overview

The Auto Affiliate Links plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 6.4.2.5. This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on several functions such as aal_exclude_terms_actions and aal_exclude_words_actions. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to update plugin settings 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)

Reaching this weakness in Auto Affiliate Links <= 6.4.2.5 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 6.4.2.6: builds <= 6.4.2.5 are affected, anything from 6.4.2.6 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 6.4.2.6, 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 6.4.2.6 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/17453fa5-af14-477b-9b3d-b245511ad8ce

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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