CVE-2018-20964 in contact-form-to-email Plugin
Summary
by MITRE
The contact-form-to-email plugin before 1.2.66 for WordPress has CSRF.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/23/2023
The contact-form-to-email plugin for WordPress represents a critical security vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-20964, where a cross-site request forgery flaw exists in versions prior to 1.2.66. This vulnerability specifically affects the plugin's handling of user interactions and form submissions within the WordPress administrative environment. The flaw allows attackers to exploit the lack of proper authentication checks and anti-CSRF tokens, potentially enabling unauthorized actions to be performed on behalf of authenticated users. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of request origins and the absence of secure token verification mechanisms that should prevent malicious actors from manipulating form submissions.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability involves the plugin's failure to implement proper request validation techniques that are standard in modern web application security practices. When a user accesses the WordPress admin interface and interacts with the contact form functionality, the application does not adequately verify that the request originates from a legitimate source within the same session. This weakness creates an attack surface where malicious actors can craft specially designed requests that, when executed by an authenticated administrator, could perform unauthorized modifications to the plugin's configuration or data handling settings. The vulnerability specifically impacts the plugin's ability to distinguish between legitimate user-initiated requests and crafted malicious requests that exploit the trust relationship between the user and the application.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data manipulation, potentially allowing attackers to compromise the entire WordPress installation through the compromised plugin. An attacker who successfully exploits this CSRF flaw could gain unauthorized access to contact form data, modify email routing configurations, or even execute arbitrary code if additional vulnerabilities exist within the plugin's architecture. This type of vulnerability directly violates the principle of least privilege and can lead to complete system compromise when combined with other attack vectors. The attack requires minimal technical expertise to execute, making it particularly dangerous for WordPress sites that rely on this plugin for contact management functionality, especially those with multiple administrators or users with elevated privileges.
Security mitigations for this vulnerability involve immediate patching of the contact-form-to-email plugin to version 1.2.66 or later, which implements proper CSRF protection mechanisms including the use of anti-CSRF tokens and request origin verification. Organizations should also implement additional defensive measures such as monitoring for unauthorized configuration changes, implementing web application firewalls to detect suspicious request patterns, and conducting regular security audits of WordPress plugins and themes. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery issues, and represents a clear violation of the web application security principle that all requests should be authenticated and validated. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving privilege escalation and persistence through compromised web application components, emphasizing the need for comprehensive security controls beyond simple patch management.