CVE-2021-24632 in Recipe Card Blocks Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 09/28/2021
The Recipe Card Blocks by WPZOOM WordPress plugin before 2.8.1 does not escape the message parameter before outputting it back in the admin dashboard, leading to a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting issue
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/03/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2021-24632 affects the Recipe Card Blocks by WPZOOM WordPress plugin version 2.8.0 and earlier, presenting a critical reflected cross-site scripting weakness that compromises the security of WordPress administrative interfaces. This issue arises from insufficient sanitization of user-supplied input within the plugin's admin dashboard functionality, specifically in how it handles the message parameter. The flaw allows malicious actors to inject malicious scripts into the admin interface through crafted requests that are then reflected back to authenticated users with administrative privileges, creating a persistent security risk that can be exploited to compromise the entire WordPress installation.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from improper output escaping practices within the plugin's codebase, where the message parameter received from user input is directly incorporated into HTML output without adequate sanitization or encoding. This failure aligns with CWE-79, which specifically addresses cross-site scripting vulnerabilities resulting from inadequate input validation and output escaping. The vulnerability operates by accepting malicious input through HTTP parameters and reflecting it back to the user's browser without proper HTML entity encoding or other protective measures that would neutralize potential script injection attempts. Attackers can craft malicious URLs containing script payloads that, when visited by administrators, execute within the context of the admin dashboard.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it can enable attackers to escalate privileges, steal administrative sessions, manipulate content, or even install malicious plugins on behalf of compromised administrators. When administrators interact with the vulnerable plugin's interface, their browsers execute the injected scripts, potentially leading to complete compromise of the WordPress site and all associated data. The reflected nature of this XSS means that the attack vector requires user interaction with a specially crafted URL, but once executed, the consequences can be severe as the malicious scripts operate with the full privileges of the authenticated user.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate plugin updates to version 2.8.1 or later, which contain the necessary output escaping fixes. Administrators should also implement additional security measures including regular security audits of installed plugins, monitoring for unauthorized modifications, and maintaining up-to-date security practices such as role-based access controls and two-factor authentication. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of input validation and output encoding practices as outlined in the OWASP Top Ten security framework, where proper sanitization of user inputs prevents many common web application vulnerabilities including XSS attacks. Organizations should also consider implementing Content Security Policy headers and regular security scanning to detect similar issues in other components of their WordPress installations. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this vulnerability under the T1213 technique for Data from Information Repositories, as it enables attackers to access administrative interfaces and potentially extract sensitive data or modify critical system components through the compromised administrative session.