WP Responsive Menu <= 3.1.7 - Missing Authorization to Settings Update & Stored Cross-Site Scripting
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 3.1.7.1
- Affected Plugin
- WP Responsive Menu
- Affected Version
<= 3.1.7- CVSS
- 5.4Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE-2021-24971
At a glance
CVE-2021-24971 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the WP Responsive Menu WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.1.7. It carries a CVSS score of 5.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The root cause is a missing authorization check on a reachable function. The issue is fixed in version 3.1.7.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2022, reported by Krzysztof Zając.
Vulnerability Overview
The WP Responsive Menu WordPress plugin before 3.1.7.1 does not have capability and CSRF checks in the wpr_live_update AJAX action, as well as do not sanitise and escape some of the data submitted. As a result, any authenticated, such as subscriber could update the plugin's settings and perform Cross-Site Scripting attacks against all visitor and users on the frontend
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed.
CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
Reaching this weakness in WP Responsive Menu <= 3.1.7 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. 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 Responsive Menu the fix is 3.1.7.1: builds <= 3.1.7 are affected, anything from 3.1.7.1 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 3.1.7.1, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to WP Responsive Menu: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: WP Responsive Menu 3.1.7.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
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