CVE-2022-1326 in Contact Form Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 06/27/2022
The Form - Contact Form WordPress plugin through 1.2.0 does not sanitize and escape Custom text fields, which could allow high-privileged users such as admin to perform Cross-Site Scripting attacks even when unfiltered_html is disallowed
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/15/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-1326 affects the Form - Contact Form WordPress plugin version 1.2.0 and earlier, representing a critical cross-site scripting weakness that undermines the security posture of WordPress installations. This issue specifically targets the plugin's handling of custom text fields within contact forms, where insufficient sanitization and escaping mechanisms leave the system exposed to malicious input. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it affects high-privileged users such as administrators, who typically operate with elevated permissions and unfiltered_html disabled for security reasons. When unfiltered_html is disallowed, WordPress normally prevents the execution of malicious scripts through form inputs, but this vulnerability bypasses those protections through improper field handling.
The technical flaw manifests in the plugin's failure to properly sanitize user-supplied input before rendering it within the web interface. Custom text fields in the contact form plugin do not undergo adequate sanitization processes that would normally strip or encode potentially dangerous HTML and JavaScript content. This insufficient input validation creates an environment where malicious actors can inject script payloads that execute in the context of other users' browsers when they view the contact form submissions. The vulnerability operates through the standard XSS attack vector where crafted input is stored and subsequently reflected back to users without proper encoding, allowing for session hijacking, credential theft, or redirection to malicious sites. This weakness directly correlates to CWE-79 which classifies cross-site scripting as a common vulnerability in web applications where untrusted data is not properly sanitized before being rendered in web pages.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script injection, potentially enabling sophisticated attacks that leverage the elevated privileges of administrators. Attackers who gain access to administrator accounts through this vulnerability could execute commands that compromise the entire WordPress installation, including the ability to modify content, steal sensitive data, or establish persistent backdoors. The security implications are particularly severe because the vulnerability affects a plugin that is widely used for creating contact forms, meaning that many WordPress sites could be exposed to this risk. The attack surface is further expanded since the vulnerability can be exploited even when standard WordPress security measures are in place, making it a particularly dangerous weakness that bypasses fundamental security controls. Additionally, the vulnerability may enable attackers to perform actions such as modifying form configurations, accessing sensitive form submissions, or manipulating the plugin's functionality in ways that could disrupt service or exfiltrate data.
Mitigation strategies should focus on immediate plugin updates to versions that address the sanitization issues, as well as implementing additional defensive measures such as content security policies that restrict script execution and enhanced input validation. Administrators should also consider implementing web application firewalls that can detect and block malicious script payloads, while monitoring for unusual activity patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper input sanitization and output encoding practices, as recommended by the OWASP Top Ten and other security frameworks, which emphasize that all user-provided data must be treated as potentially malicious and properly validated before any processing or display. Organizations should also conduct comprehensive security assessments of their WordPress installations to identify similar vulnerabilities in other plugins or themes, as this vulnerability demonstrates how insufficient sanitization in one component can create security risks that affect the entire system.