CVE-2022-0180 in Quiz And Survey Master
Summary
by MITRE • 01/17/2022
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Quiz And Survey Master versions prior to 7.3.7 allows a remote attacker to hijack the authentication of administrators and conduct arbitrary operations via a specially crafted web page.
Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/19/2022
The CVE-2022-0180 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the Quiz And Survey Master WordPress plugin, affecting versions prior to 7.3.7. This vulnerability exposes administrators to unauthorized actions through malicious web page manipulation, fundamentally compromising the security integrity of WordPress installations that rely on this plugin for quiz and survey functionality. The issue stems from inadequate validation of request origins and missing anti-CSRF tokens in the plugin's administrative interfaces, creating a pathway for attackers to execute unauthorized administrative operations without proper authentication.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when administrators visit a malicious website that contains embedded requests to the vulnerable plugin's administrative endpoints. The flaw specifically affects the plugin's handling of administrative actions such as creating new quizzes, modifying survey settings, or deleting content, as these operations can be triggered through crafted HTTP requests without proper verification of the user's intent. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which categorizes cross-site request forgery as a weakness where a web application fails to validate that requests originate from legitimate sources. The attack vector leverages the trust relationship between the browser and the vulnerable web application, exploiting the fact that browsers automatically include authentication cookies for the target domain with every request.
From an operational standpoint, this vulnerability poses significant risk to organizations relying on Quiz And Survey Master for educational assessments, customer feedback collection, or internal surveys. Attackers could potentially modify quiz questions, alter survey results, delete critical content, or even create new administrator accounts through the compromised administrative interface. The impact extends beyond simple data manipulation as it could compromise the integrity of assessment results, undermine the credibility of survey data, and potentially lead to more severe consequences if the compromised system serves as a gateway to other network resources. The vulnerability operates under the ATT&CK framework as a privilege escalation technique, specifically targeting the web application layer to gain administrative access and execute operations that would normally require legitimate administrative credentials.
Organizations should immediately upgrade to Quiz And Survey Master version 7.3.7 or later to address this vulnerability, as the patch includes proper CSRF token implementation and request origin validation. Additionally, implementing additional security measures such as web application firewalls, monitoring for unusual administrative activities, and conducting regular security assessments can help detect and prevent exploitation attempts. Network segmentation and principle of least privilege should be enforced to limit the potential impact if exploitation occurs, while regular security updates and patch management processes should be strengthened to prevent similar vulnerabilities from arising in other plugins or components of the WordPress ecosystem.