WP External Links < 1.81 - Authenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.81
- Affected Plugin
- External Links – nofollow, noopener & new window
- Affected Version
< 1.81- CVSS
- 6.4Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE pending
At a glance
This record tracks a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the External Links WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 1.81. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account. The issue is fixed in version 1.81; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2016, reported by Vulnerability Lab.
Vulnerability Overview
The WP External Links plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via several parameters in versions before 1.81 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers 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 interaction from a victim user.
CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
Reaching this weakness in External Links < 1.81 takes any authenticated account. 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 External Links the fix is 1.81: builds < 1.81 are affected, anything from 1.81 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.81, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to External Links: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: External Links 1.81 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
Other vulnerabilities in External Links – nofollow, noopener & new window
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