CVE-2021-24278

Redirection for Contact Form 7 <= 2.3.3 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary Nonce Generation

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: 7.5High
Weakness type: CWE-863 · Incorrect Authorization
CVE: CVE-2021-24278

View all Redirection for Contact Form 7 vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-24278 is a high-severity Incorrect Authorization vulnerability in the Redirection for Contact Form 7 WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 2.3.4. It carries a CVSS score of 7.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. 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, unauthenticated users can use the wpcf7r_get_nonce AJAX action to retrieve a valid nonce for any WordPress action/function.

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, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality.

CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization

Reaching this weakness in Redirection for Contact Form 7 < 2.3.4 takes no account at all. 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?

This one needs no account at all, which puts it outside what login hardening can reach; WordSec's login security narrows the account-level paths around it, and the firewall is what inspects the request itself. 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-2021-24278 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/773ed184-1478-417d-9a57-93f3971d4bc8 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24278

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Redirection for Contact Form 7

CVSS Vector

7.5

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityNone
AvailabilityNone

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