CVE-2021-24279

Redirection for Contact Form 7 <= 2.3.3 - Authenticated Arbitrary Plugin Installation

2021-04-20 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.3.4
Affected Plugin: Redirection for Contact Form 7
Affected Version: < 2.3.4
CVSS: 6.5Medium
Weakness type: CWE-863 · Incorrect Authorization
CVE: CVE-2021-24279

View all Redirection for Contact Form 7 vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-24279 is a medium-severity Incorrect Authorization vulnerability in the Redirection for Contact Form 7 WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 2.3.4. It carries a CVSS score of 6.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high integrity impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account. The issue is fixed in version 2.3.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2021, reported by Chloe Chamberland.

Vulnerability Overview

In the Redirection for Contact Form 7 WordPress plugin before 2.3.4, low level users, such as subscribers, could use the import_from_debug AJAX action to install any plugin from the WordPress repository.

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. A successful exploit has high impact on integrity.

CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization

Reaching this weakness in Redirection for Contact Form 7 < 2.3.4 takes any authenticated account. Incorrect authorization means a permission check exists but evaluates the wrong thing, so it passes for callers it was meant to stop.

The action runs for users the code intended to exclude, with the same effect as having no check at all. For Redirection for Contact Form 7 the fix is 2.3.4: builds < 2.3.4 are affected, anything from 2.3.4 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.3.4, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: Redirection for Contact Form 7 2.3.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-24279 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/2ee6ffb3-9a4a-4564-bfef-116a12268c3c https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24279

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Redirection for Contact Form 7

CVSS Vector

6.5

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityNone
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityNone

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