CVE-2022-1593 in Site Offline or Coming Soon Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 06/27/2022
The Site Offline or Coming Soon WordPress plugin through 1.6.6 does not have CSRF check in place when updating its settings, and it also lacking sanitisation as well as escaping in some of them. As a result, attackers could make a logged in admin change them and put Cross-Site Scripting payloads in them via a CSRF attack
If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/15/2022
The Site Offline or Coming Soon WordPress plugin version 1.6.6 and earlier contains a critical security vulnerability that stems from insufficient cross-site request forgery protection mechanisms. This vulnerability exists within the plugin's administrative settings update functionality where no proper CSRF tokens are implemented to validate that requests originate from legitimate administrative sessions. The absence of CSRF protection creates a pathway for malicious actors to exploit authenticated admin sessions through social engineering or by tricking administrators into visiting malicious web pages that automatically submit requests to the vulnerable plugin's settings endpoint.
The vulnerability extends beyond simple CSRF exposure due to the complete lack of input sanitization and output escaping mechanisms within the plugin's settings handling code. This dual deficiency creates an environment where attackers can inject malicious scripts directly into the plugin's configuration parameters without any filtering or encoding of user-supplied data. The combination of these weaknesses transforms what would otherwise be a simple CSRF vulnerability into a more dangerous cross-site scripting vector, as malicious payloads can be stored in the plugin's settings and subsequently executed in the context of any administrator's browser session.
From an operational standpoint, this vulnerability represents a significant risk to WordPress installations using the affected plugin, as it allows attackers to execute arbitrary JavaScript code within the administrative context of the website. The impact extends beyond simple data theft or defacement, as successful exploitation could enable attackers to modify plugin settings, potentially creating persistent backdoors or establishing additional attack vectors within the WordPress environment. The vulnerability affects any authenticated administrator who visits a malicious page while logged into their WordPress site, making it particularly dangerous in environments where administrators frequently browse the internet or visit untrusted websites.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which describes Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in web applications, and CWE-79, which addresses Cross-Site Scripting vulnerabilities. This combination of weaknesses creates a particularly dangerous attack scenario where the initial CSRF exploit can be leveraged to establish persistent XSS capabilities within the administrative interface. The attack chain typically involves crafting a malicious webpage that automatically submits requests to the vulnerable plugin's settings update endpoint, embedding malicious JavaScript payloads that are then stored and executed whenever administrators view the plugin's settings or when the plugin's functionality is invoked.
Mitigation strategies should prioritize immediate plugin updates to versions that implement proper CSRF token validation and include comprehensive input sanitization and output escaping mechanisms. Organizations should also implement additional security measures such as role-based access controls that limit administrative privileges to trusted users only, and consider implementing Content Security Policy headers to provide additional protection against XSS exploitation. Network-based protections such as web application firewalls can help detect and block malicious requests targeting this specific vulnerability, while regular security audits should verify that all WordPress plugins maintain proper security practices including CSRF protection, input validation, and output sanitization to prevent similar vulnerabilities from emerging in the future.