CVE-2021-20652 in Name Directory Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 02/05/2021
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Name Directory 1.17.4 and earlier allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/24/2021
The CVE-2021-20652 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in the Name Directory plugin version 1.17.4 and earlier. This vulnerability resides within the WordPress ecosystem and specifically targets the authentication mechanisms of administrative users. The issue allows remote attackers to exploit the lack of proper CSRF protection measures, potentially enabling them to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated administrators without their knowledge or consent.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of request origins and lack of anti-CSRF tokens within the plugin's administrative interfaces. When administrators interact with the Name Directory plugin, the system fails to properly verify that requests originate from legitimate sources within the same session. This absence of proper CSRF protection mechanisms creates an exploitable condition where malicious actors can craft specially crafted requests that appear to come from authenticated administrators. The unspecified vectors mentioned in the description suggest that the vulnerability could be triggered through various attack surfaces within the plugin's administrative functionality, potentially including user management, configuration changes, or data modification operations.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to WordPress installations using the affected Name Directory plugin. Attackers who successfully exploit this CSRF vulnerability can potentially escalate their privileges, modify user accounts, change administrative settings, or perform other malicious activities that require administrator-level access. The impact extends beyond simple data theft or modification as it represents a fundamental breach in the authentication system's integrity. This vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it can be exploited without requiring any special privileges or advanced technical knowledge from the attacker, making it a high-severity threat that could lead to complete system compromise.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery issues in web applications. This classification indicates that the flaw represents a well-known security weakness where applications fail to validate that requests originate from legitimate sources. The attack pattern follows typical CSRF exploitation methods as outlined in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for social engineering attacks. Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement mitigations including updating to the patched version of the Name Directory plugin, implementing additional security measures such as custom anti-CSRF tokens, and conducting thorough security audits of their WordPress installations. The recommended remediation involves upgrading to a version that includes proper CSRF protection mechanisms and implementing comprehensive monitoring to detect potential exploitation attempts.