CVE-2021-24776

WP Performance Score Booster <= 2.0 - Settings Change via Cross-Site Request Forgery

2021-10-18 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.1
Affected Plugin: WP Performance Score Booster – Optimize Speed, Enable Cache & Page Preload
Affected Version: <= 2.0
CVSS: 4.3Medium
Weakness type: CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE: CVE-2021-24776

View all WP Performance Score Booster – Optimize Speed, Enable Cache & Page Preload vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-24776 is a medium-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the WP Performance Score Booster WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.0. 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 2.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2021, reported by apple502j.

Vulnerability Overview

The WP Performance Score Booster WordPress plugin before 2.1 does not have CSRF check when saving its settings, which could allow attackers to make a logged in admin change them via a CSRF attack.

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 WP Performance Score Booster <= 2.0 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 WP Performance Score Booster the fix is 2.1: builds <= 2.0 are affected, anything from 2.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to WP Performance Score Booster: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: WP Performance Score Booster 2.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-24776 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/d97af468-d345-4d19-a1b0-f42d890a34d8 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24776

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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