Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 8.9.3
- Affected Plugin
- WP Cerber Security, Anti-spam & Malware Scan
- Affected Version
< 8.9.3- CVSS
- 5.3Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-284 · Improper Access Control
- CVE
CVE-2021-37598
At a glance
CVE-2021-37598 is a medium-severity Improper Access Control vulnerability in the WP Cerber Security, Anti-spam & Malware Scan WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 8.9.3. It carries a CVSS score of 5.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 8.9.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2021, reported by Aaron Carreras.
Vulnerability Overview
WP Cerber before 8.9.3 allows bypass of /wp-json access control via a trailing ? character.
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, and no interaction from a victim user.
CWE-284: Improper Access Control
Reaching this weakness in WP Cerber Security, Anti-spam & Malware Scan < 8.9.3 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. 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 WP Cerber Security, Anti-spam & Malware Scan the fix is 8.9.3: builds < 8.9.3 are affected, anything from 8.9.3 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 8.9.3, 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: WP Cerber Security, Anti-spam & Malware Scan 8.9.3 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in WP Cerber Security, Anti-spam & Malware Scan
- 9.8CVE-2021-37597: WP Cerber Security < 8.9.3 Multifactor Bypass
CVE-2021-37597 - 7.2CVE-2022-4712: WP Cerber Security <= 9.1 Stored Cross-Site Scripting
CVE-2022-4712 - 7.2CVE-2022-0429: WP Cerber Security <= 8.9.5.2 Stored XSS
CVE-2022-0429 - 7.2CVE-2016-10990: Cerber Security, Anti-spam & Malware Scan Stored XSS
CVE-2016-10990 - 5.5WP Cerber Security <= 9.0 Stored Cross-Site Scripting
- 5.3CVE-2022-4100: WP Cerber Security <= 9.4 IP Protection Bypass
CVE-2022-4100 - 5.3CVE-2022-4417: WP Cerber Security <= 9.3.2 User Enumeration Bypass
CVE-2022-4417 - 5.3CVE-2022-2939: WP Cerber Security <= 9.0 User Enumeration Bypass
CVE-2022-2939
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C