CVE-2022-0189

WP RSS Aggregator <= 4.19.3 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

2022-01-26 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 4.20
Affected Plugin: WP RSS Aggregator – RSS Import, Feed to Post, Autoblogging, AI Content
Affected Version: <= 4.19.3
CVSS: 6.1Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2022-0189

View all WP RSS Aggregator – RSS Import, Feed to Post, Autoblogging, AI Content vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2022-0189 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the WP RSS Aggregator WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 4.19.3. It carries a CVSS score of 6.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 4.20; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2022, reported by Krzysztof Zając.

Vulnerability Overview

The WP RSS Aggregator WordPress plugin before 4.20 does not sanitise and escape the id parameter in the wprss_fetch_items_row_action AJAX action before outputting it back in the response, leading to a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

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 RSS Aggregator <= 4.19.3 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 RSS Aggregator the fix is 4.20: builds <= 4.19.3 are affected, anything from 4.20 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 4.20, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to WP RSS Aggregator: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: WP RSS Aggregator 4.20 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-0189 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/9b4bb70a-ee8e-4e1a-9989-7658307bedc1 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-0189

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in WP RSS Aggregator – RSS Import, Feed to Post, Autoblogging, AI Content

CVSS Vector

6.1

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionRequired
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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