CVE-2021-24388 in Car Rental Management System Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 07/06/2021
In the VikRentCar Car Rental Management System WordPress plugin before 1.1.7, there is a custom filed option by which we can manage all the fields that the users will have to fill in before saving the order. However, the field name is not sanitised or escaped before being output back in the page, leading to a stored Cross-Site Scripting issue. There is also no CSRF check done before saving the setting, allowing attackers to make a logged in admin set arbitrary Custom Fields, including one with XSS payload in it.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/10/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2021-24388 affects the VikRentCar Car Rental Management System WordPress plugin, specifically targeting versions prior to 1.1.7. This issue represents a critical security flaw that combines multiple attack vectors to enable sophisticated cross-site scripting exploitation. The vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and output sanitization mechanisms within the plugin's administrative interface, creating a persistent security risk for WordPress sites utilizing this rental management system.
The technical flaw manifests through improper handling of user-defined field names within the plugin's configuration system. When administrators configure custom fields for order management, the plugin fails to sanitize or escape the field names before rendering them back to the user interface. This creates a classic stored cross-site scripting vulnerability where malicious payloads can be injected and persisted within the plugin's settings. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it operates within the administrative context, meaning that any successful exploitation would allow attackers to execute malicious scripts in the context of logged-in administrators.
The absence of CSRF protection further compounds the severity of this vulnerability by enabling attackers to perform unauthorized administrative actions without user consent. This means that an attacker could craft malicious requests that would automatically save arbitrary custom fields, including those containing XSS payloads, without requiring the administrator to manually interact with the malicious content. The combination of stored XSS and CSRF protection bypass creates a highly exploitable scenario that can lead to complete administrative compromise of affected WordPress installations.
This vulnerability maps directly to CWE-79 "Cross-Site Scripting" and CWE-352 "Cross-Site Request Forgery" within the Common Weakness Enumeration framework, representing a clear violation of secure coding practices for web application security. From an ATT&CK perspective, this vulnerability aligns with T1059.001 "Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell" and T1566.001 "Phishing: Spearphishing Attachment" as attackers could leverage this vulnerability to establish persistent access and execute malicious commands within the compromised administrative environment. The impact extends beyond simple script execution to potentially enable full system compromise through privilege escalation and lateral movement within the affected WordPress environment.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately update to version 1.1.7 or later of the VikRentCar plugin to remediate the security issue. In addition to patching, administrators should conduct thorough security audits of their WordPress installations, reviewing all plugin configurations for similar sanitization issues. Network monitoring should be implemented to detect potential exploitation attempts, and security headers including Content Security Policy should be configured to mitigate the impact of any successful XSS attempts. Regular security assessments of third-party plugins and themes should be maintained to prevent similar vulnerabilities from being introduced into WordPress environments.