WPJobBoard <= 5.6.4 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting & Cross-Frame Scripting

2020-11-25 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 5.7.0
Affected Plugin: WP Job Board
Affected Version: <= 5.6.4
CVSS: 6.1Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE pending

At a glance

This record tracks a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the WP Job Board WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 5.6.4. 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 5.7.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed November 2020, reported by R3N0.

Vulnerability Overview

The WPJobBoard plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting and Cross-Frame Scripting via the ‘query' and 'location’ parameters in versions up to, and including, 5.6.4 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that execute if they can successfully trick a user into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

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')

WP Job Board <= 5.6.4 carries this weakness at query, and reaching it 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 Job Board the fix is 5.7.0: builds <= 5.6.4 are affected, anything from 5.7.0 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 5.7.0, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to WP Job Board: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: WP Job Board 5.7.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/414013e9-5baa-4f4f-bf67-f0e821ece807

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in WP Job Board

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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