CVE-2023-6981

WP SMS <= 6.5 - Authenticated (Admin+) SQL Injection to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

2024-01-02 00:00
Krzysztof Zając

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 6.5.1
Affected Plugin
WSMS (formerly WP SMS) – SMS & MMS Notifications with OTP and 2FA for WooCommerce
Affected Version
<= 6.5
CVSS
6.1Medium
Weakness type
CWE-89 · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')
CVE
CVE-2023-6981
View all WSMS (formerly WP SMS) – SMS & MMS Notifications with OTP and 2FA for WooCommerce vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-6981 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') vulnerability in the WSMS (formerly WP SMS) WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 6.5. 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 6.5.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2024, reported by Krzysztof Zając.

Vulnerability Overview

The WP SMS – Messaging & SMS Notification for WordPress, WooCommerce, GravityForms, etc plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to SQL Injection via the 'group_id' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 6.5 due to insufficient escaping on the user supplied parameter and lack of sufficient preparation on the existing SQL query. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with contributor-level access and above, to append additional SQL queries into already existing queries that can be used to extract sensitive information from the database. This can leveraged to achieve 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-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')

WSMS (formerly WP SMS) <= 6.5 carries this weakness at group_id, and reaching it takes an account at Admin level or above. SQL injection happens when request data is concatenated into a query instead of being bound as a parameter, letting an attacker change the structure of the statement rather than just its values.

A working injection can read any table the database user can see, which on a WordPress install means user records, password hashes and session or API secrets stored in options. For WSMS (formerly WP SMS) the fix is 6.5.1: builds <= 6.5 are affected, anything from 6.5.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 6.5.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Admin access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: WSMS (formerly WP SMS) 6.5.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-6981https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b8f53053-5150-4fba-b8d6-3d6c9df32c69https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-6981

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C