CVE-2022-29489 in Sucuri Security Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 09/17/2022
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Sucuri Security plugin <= 1.8.33 at WordPress leading to Event log entry creation.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/20/2025
The CVE-2022-29489 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the Sucuri Security WordPress plugin version 1.8.33 and earlier. This vulnerability specifically targets the plugin's event log entry creation functionality, which serves as a crucial security monitoring component for WordPress sites. The Sucuri plugin is widely deployed across WordPress environments to provide security monitoring, malware detection, and intrusion prevention capabilities, making this vulnerability particularly concerning for website administrators who rely on the plugin for their security infrastructure.
The technical flaw stems from the absence of proper CSRF protection mechanisms in the plugin's administrative interfaces, particularly when processing event log entry creation requests. Attackers can exploit this weakness by crafting malicious web pages or email content that, when visited by an authenticated administrator, automatically submits requests to the vulnerable plugin endpoint. The vulnerability lacks anti-CSRF tokens or other validation mechanisms that would normally ensure requests originate from legitimate administrative sessions. This allows unauthorized actors to perform actions on behalf of authenticated users without their knowledge or consent, specifically targeting the event log creation functionality that records security-related activities within the WordPress environment.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as it can enable attackers to manipulate the security monitoring capabilities of affected systems. When an administrator interacts with malicious content, the vulnerability allows for unauthorized event log entries to be created, potentially leading to false security alerts, data manipulation, or even the creation of backdoor entries that could persist undetected within the security monitoring system. This manipulation of event logs can significantly compromise the integrity of security monitoring, as it becomes difficult for administrators to distinguish between legitimate security events and those artificially generated by attackers. The vulnerability essentially undermines the trustworthiness of the security logging mechanism that administrators depend upon for detecting and responding to actual security incidents.
Organizations should immediately update to Sucuri Security plugin version 1.8.34 or later, which contains the necessary CSRF protection patches. System administrators should also conduct thorough security audits of their WordPress installations to identify any potential exploitation that may have occurred prior to the patch deployment. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in web applications, and demonstrates how security monitoring tools themselves can contain exploitable flaws that adversaries can leverage to compromise the overall security posture of affected systems. Additionally, this vulnerability maps to ATT&CK technique T1078.004, which involves valid accounts and legitimate credentials being used to bypass security controls, as the attack exploits existing administrative sessions rather than requiring credential theft. Organizations should implement additional monitoring for unusual event log creation patterns and consider deploying web application firewalls to detect and block suspicious CSRF attack patterns targeting WordPress administrative interfaces.