WP-ContactForm <= 1.5 - Authenticated (Admin+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- WP-ContactForm
- Affected Version
<= 1.5- CVSS
- 6.1Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE-2008-0197
At a glance
CVE-2008-0197 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the WP-ContactForm WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.5. It carries a CVSS score of 6.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed January 2008, reported by Eugene Dokukin.
Vulnerability Overview
The WP-ContactForm plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the (1) wpcf_email, (2) wpcf_subject, (3) wpcf_question, (4) wpcf_answer, (5) wpcf_success_msg, (6) wpcf_error_msg, and (7) wpcf_msg parameters or the SRC attribute of an IFRAME element in versions up to, and including, 1.5 alpha due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with administrative capabilities to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.
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-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
Reaching this weakness in WP-ContactForm <= 1.5 takes an account at Admin level or above. 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. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for WP-ContactForm yet, so installs running <= 1.5 stay exposed until the vendor ships one.
Remediation
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
How does WordSec protect against this?
An attacker needs Admin access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in WP-ContactForm
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