CVE-2022-2389 in Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce, Follow Up Emails, Newsletter Builder & Marketing Automation Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 08/22/2022
The Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce, Follow Up Emails, Newsletter Builder & Marketing Automation By Autonami WordPress plugin before 2.1.2 does not have authorisation and CSRF checks in one of its AJAX action, allowing any authenticated users, such as subscriber to create automations
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/22/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-2389 affects the Autonami WordPress plugin, specifically targeting versions prior to 2.1.2. This plugin serves as a comprehensive marketing automation solution for WooCommerce stores, offering features including abandoned cart recovery, follow-up emails, and newsletter building capabilities. The flaw resides in the plugin's AJAX handling mechanism where proper authorization and Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) validation checks are absent. This critical oversight allows any authenticated user account within the WordPress system to exploit the vulnerability regardless of their role permissions.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the plugin's failure to validate user permissions before executing sensitive automation creation functions. When an authenticated user accesses the plugin's AJAX endpoints, the system does not verify whether the requesting user possesses the necessary administrative privileges to create or modify automation workflows. This absence of authorization checks creates a privilege escalation scenario where users with minimal permissions can perform actions typically restricted to administrators or editors. The vulnerability specifically impacts the automation creation functionality, which can be leveraged to establish automated email sequences, trigger notifications, or execute other marketing automation tasks that could potentially compromise the store's security posture.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as it enables malicious actors to create persistent automation workflows that could be used for various nefarious purposes. An authenticated subscriber account could establish automated email campaigns that might include spam content, phishing attempts, or other malicious payloads designed to compromise customer data or disrupt normal business operations. The implications are particularly severe for e-commerce environments where the plugin's automation features are heavily utilized for customer engagement and marketing campaigns. Attackers could potentially use this vulnerability to create automated workflows that send unsolicited emails to customers, collect personal information through automated forms, or even establish backdoor communication channels through the marketing automation infrastructure.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-863, which addresses "Incorrect Authorization" issues in software systems, and represents a clear violation of the principle of least privilege in security design. The absence of CSRF protection further compounds the risk by making it possible for attackers to exploit this vulnerability through social engineering or by tricking authenticated users into performing malicious actions. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving privilege escalation and persistence mechanisms, as attackers can establish automated workflows that maintain their access and influence over time. The vulnerability also relates to the broader category of insecure direct object references, where the lack of proper access controls allows unauthorized manipulation of system resources.
The recommended mitigation strategy involves upgrading to version 2.1.2 or later of the Autonami plugin, which includes proper authorization checks and CSRF protection mechanisms. Administrators should also implement additional security measures such as role-based access controls to limit user permissions, monitor for unusual automation creation activities, and regularly audit plugin installations for vulnerabilities. Security teams should consider implementing network monitoring solutions that can detect anomalous automation creation patterns and establish automated alerts for unauthorized workflow modifications. Regular security assessments of WordPress plugins and themes should be conducted to identify and remediate similar authorization flaws before they can be exploited by malicious actors.