WP Recipe Maker <= 10.8.1 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary Shortcode Execution via Recipe Comment Content

The WP Recipe Maker plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary Shortcode Execution in all versions up to, and including, 10.8.1. The vulnerability exists because `WPRM_Metadata::sanitize_metadata()` recursively calls `do_shortcode()` on every scalar field of the recipe's structured metadata array — including the `reviewBody` field, which is populated verbatim from the `comment_content` of approved `wprm-comment-rating` comments — without sanitizing or stripping shortcode tokens before execution; the subsequent `wp_strip_all_tags()` and `strip_shortcodes()` calls operate only on the output string after execution has already fully occurred, providing no protection against server-side shortcode invocation. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary registered WordPress shortcodes server-side on every recipe page render, causing shortcode output — such as attachment captions, private post fields, or other data exposed by installed shortcodes — to be embedded in the page's JSON-LD `reviewBody` metadata and disclosed to all visitors who load the recipe page. Successful exploitation requires the attacker's rated comment to pass the site's comment approval threshold, either via auto-approval or moderator action, before the injected shortcode begins executing on page loads.

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. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: WP Recipe Maker 10.8.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

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