WP Cerber Security <= 8.9.5.2 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 8.9.6
- Affected Plugin
- WP Cerber Security, Anti-spam & Malware Scan
- Affected Version
<= 8.9.5.2- CVSS
- 7.2High
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE-2022-0429
At a glance
CVE-2022-0429 is a high-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the WP Cerber Security, Anti-spam & Malware Scan WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 8.9.5.2. It carries a CVSS score of 7.2 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 8.9.6; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2022, reported by Krzysztof Zając.
Vulnerability Overview
The WP Cerber Security, Anti-spam & Malware Scan WordPress plugin before 8.9.6 does not sanitise the $url variable before using it in an attribute in the Activity tab in the plugins dashboard, leading to an unauthenticated stored Cross-Site Scripting vulnerability.
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-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
Reaching this weakness in WP Cerber Security, Anti-spam & Malware Scan <= 8.9.5.2 takes no account at all. 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. For WP Cerber Security, Anti-spam & Malware Scan the fix is 8.9.6: builds <= 8.9.5.2 are affected, anything from 8.9.6 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 8.9.6, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: WP Cerber Security, Anti-spam & Malware Scan 8.9.6 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
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 - 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 - 5.3CVE-2021-37598: WP Cerber < 8.9.3 Access Bypass Control
CVE-2021-37598
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