CVE-2022-1903 in ARMember Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 06/27/2022
The ARMember WordPress plugin before 3.4.8 is vulnerable to account takeover (even the administrator) due to missing nonce and authorization checks in an AJAX action available to unauthenticated users, allowing them to change the password of arbitrary users by knowing their username
Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/15/2022
The ARMember WordPress plugin vulnerability CVE-2022-1903 represents a critical authorization flaw that enables unauthenticated attackers to perform account takeover operations across arbitrary user accounts including administrative ones. This vulnerability exists within the plugin's AJAX handling mechanism where insufficient validation controls permit malicious actors to exploit a specific endpoint that should require proper authentication and nonce verification. The flaw specifically affects versions prior to 3.4.8, indicating that the plugin developers had not yet implemented adequate security measures to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive user management functions. The vulnerability's severity is amplified by the fact that it allows attackers to change passwords without requiring any valid session or authentication credentials, making it particularly dangerous in environments where administrators might be targeted for compromise.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the absence of proper authorization checks within the plugin's AJAX action handler. According to CWE-863, this represents a failure to correctly enforce access control, where the system fails to verify that the requesting user has proper authorization to perform the requested operation. The vulnerability specifically manifests in the plugin's handling of password reset functionality through AJAX calls that are accessible to unauthenticated users. Attackers can leverage this by crafting malicious requests that include the target username and a new password value, bypassing all normal authentication mechanisms and authorization protocols. The lack of nonce validation further compounds the issue, eliminating the protection that time-based tokens typically provide against replay attacks and ensuring that any valid request can be executed without proper verification.
The operational impact of CVE-2022-1903 extends beyond simple credential theft, as it provides attackers with complete control over user accounts including those with administrative privileges. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078 which covers legitimate credentials usage, but in this case the credentials are compromised through a different vector - unauthorized access to password change functionality. The attack chain typically involves identifying a target user account, potentially through enumeration or social engineering, then exploiting the vulnerable AJAX endpoint to change the password and gain persistent access to the compromised account. For WordPress administrators, this vulnerability represents a significant risk as it could allow attackers to completely take over the entire website, modify content, install malware, or exfiltrate sensitive data. The vulnerability's persistence is further enhanced by the fact that once an attacker gains access to an account, they can modify the system configuration, create additional administrator accounts, or establish backdoors that persist beyond the initial exploitation.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2022-1903 should prioritize immediate plugin updates to version 3.4.8 or later, which contains the necessary security patches to address the missing authorization checks and nonce validation. Organizations should also implement network-level controls such as rate limiting on AJAX endpoints and monitoring for unusual password change patterns that could indicate exploitation attempts. Security professionals should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify all instances of the vulnerable plugin across their infrastructure, particularly focusing on high-privilege accounts that might be targeted. Additional defensive measures include implementing proper input validation, enforcing strict access controls on all AJAX endpoints, and ensuring that any user-facing administrative functionality requires proper authentication tokens. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of regular security audits and the need for WordPress plugin developers to follow security best practices including proper nonce implementation, authentication verification, and authorization checks for all user-facing administrative functions. Organizations should also consider implementing multi-factor authentication for administrator accounts as an additional protective layer against credential compromise.