CVE-2022-0884 in Profile Builder Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 04/04/2022
The Profile Builder WordPress plugin before 3.6.8 does not sanitise and escape Form Fields titles and description, which could allow high privilege user such as admin to perform Criss-Site Scripting attacks even when unfiltered_html is disallowed
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/06/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-0884 affects the Profile Builder WordPress plugin version 3.6.8 and earlier, presenting a critical cross-site scripting flaw that undermines the security of high-privilege users. This weakness stems from insufficient sanitization and escaping of form field titles and descriptions within the plugin's administrative interface. The vulnerability specifically targets users with administrator privileges who possess the ability to create and modify form fields, making it particularly dangerous in environments where administrative access is compromised or where attackers can escalate privileges through other means.
The technical flaw manifests in the plugin's failure to properly sanitize user input when processing form field titles and descriptions. When administrators create or edit form fields through the Profile Builder interface, the plugin stores these values directly into the WordPress database without adequate sanitization measures. This allows malicious actors to inject malicious scripts into these fields, which then execute in the context of other users' browsers when they view the affected forms. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it operates even when WordPress's unfiltered_html capability is disabled, which is a standard security measure designed to prevent the execution of arbitrary HTML and script code in user-generated content. This bypass of the unfiltered_html restriction demonstrates the severity of the flaw, as it circumvents fundamental WordPress security controls that are typically sufficient to prevent such attacks.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple XSS execution, as it can enable attackers to perform a wide range of malicious activities including credential theft, session hijacking, and privilege escalation within the WordPress environment. Attackers can craft malicious form fields that, when viewed by administrators, execute scripts to steal cookies, redirect users to malicious sites, or even inject additional malicious code into the WordPress installation. The vulnerability is especially dangerous because it targets the administrative interface, which typically has the highest privileges within the WordPress system. This creates a potential attack vector where a single compromised administrative account could be leveraged to gain broader access to the entire WordPress installation and potentially the underlying server infrastructure.
Security mitigations for this vulnerability should focus on immediate plugin updates to version 3.6.8 or later, which contain the necessary sanitization fixes. Organizations should also implement additional security measures including regular security audits of installed plugins, monitoring for unauthorized modifications to form fields, and implementing web application firewalls to detect and block suspicious script injections. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-79, which describes cross-site scripting flaws in web applications, and represents a specific instance of CWE-116, concerning improper neutralization of special elements in output. From an ATT&CK perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1566, specifically targeting the exploitation of web application vulnerabilities, and T1078, which addresses legitimate credentials usage through administrative access. Organizations should also consider implementing Content Security Policy headers to provide additional defense-in-depth against script execution, though the primary mitigation remains the immediate patching of the vulnerable plugin to ensure that all form field inputs are properly sanitized before storage and output.