CVE-2021-24561

WP SMS <= 5.4.12 - Authenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting

2021-07-26 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 5.4.13
Affected Plugin: WSMS (formerly WP SMS) – SMS & MMS Notifications with OTP and 2FA for WooCommerce
Affected Version: < 5.4.13
CVSS: 5.5Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2021-24561

View all WSMS (formerly WP SMS) – SMS & MMS Notifications with OTP and 2FA for WooCommerce vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-24561 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the WSMS (formerly WP SMS) WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 5.4.13. It carries a CVSS score of 5.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account. The issue is fixed in version 5.4.13; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2021, reported by Muhammad Daffa.

Vulnerability Overview

The WP SMS WordPress plugin before 5.4.13 does not sanitise the "wp_group_name" parameter before outputting it back in the "Groups" page, leading to an Authenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting issue

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')

WSMS (formerly WP SMS) < 5.4.13 carries this weakness at wp_group_name, and reaching it 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 WSMS (formerly WP SMS) the fix is 5.4.13: builds < 5.4.13 are affected, anything from 5.4.13 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 5.4.13, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to WSMS (formerly WP SMS): WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: WSMS (formerly WP SMS) 5.4.13 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-24561 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/90ebe593-6511-4998-a45e-795f3597b191 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24561

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in WSMS (formerly WP SMS) – SMS & MMS Notifications with OTP and 2FA for WooCommerce

CVSS Vector

5.5

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredHigh
User InteractionNone
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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