CVE-2022-36358 in SEO Scout Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 08/25/2022
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in SEO Scout plugin <= 0.9.83 at WordPress allows attackers to trick users with administrative rights to unintentionally change the plugin settings.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/02/2022
The CVE-2022-36358 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the SEO Scout WordPress plugin version 0.9.83 and earlier. This vulnerability exists in the plugin's handling of administrative requests and poses significant risks to WordPress sites that rely on this SEO optimization tool. The flaw allows attackers to manipulate administrative functions through crafted malicious requests that appear legitimate to unsuspecting administrators. The vulnerability specifically targets the plugin's settings modification capabilities, enabling unauthorized changes to critical SEO configurations that could impact site visibility, ranking, and overall performance. Given that the affected plugin is designed for SEO optimization, the potential impact extends beyond simple configuration changes to include possible ranking manipulation and site compromise through malicious SEO strategies. The vulnerability stems from inadequate validation of the origin of requests within the plugin's administrative interface, failing to implement proper CSRF token verification mechanisms that would ensure requests originate from legitimate administrative sessions.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability demonstrates a classic CSRF attack vector where an attacker crafts a malicious request that targets the SEO Scout plugin's administrative endpoints. When an administrator visits a compromised page or clicks on malicious links, their browser automatically submits requests to the plugin's configuration endpoints without proper authorization checks. The vulnerability lacks anti-CSRF tokens or referer validation in the plugin's administrative forms and API endpoints, making it susceptible to exploitation through social engineering techniques or by embedding malicious requests within compromised websites. This flaw aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerabilities in web applications. The attack typically involves tricking administrators into visiting malicious websites or clicking on compromised links that automatically submit requests to the vulnerable plugin's administrative interface, effectively bypassing the authentication mechanisms that should protect administrative functions.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is substantial for WordPress administrators who use the SEO Scout plugin, as it provides attackers with unauthorized access to critical SEO configuration settings. Successful exploitation could result in malicious redirects, altered meta tags, modified sitemap configurations, or even the injection of malicious code through compromised SEO settings. Attackers could potentially manipulate search engine optimization parameters to harm the site's visibility, redirect traffic to malicious destinations, or create backdoors through compromised SEO configurations. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it targets administrative privileges, allowing attackers to make persistent changes that could affect site performance, security, and search engine rankings for extended periods. This type of vulnerability falls under ATT&CK technique T1078 which covers valid accounts and T1566 which covers credential harvesting and social engineering, as the attack exploits the trust relationship between administrators and the web application.
Organizations should immediately update the SEO Scout plugin to version 0.9.84 or later, which contains the necessary CSRF protection mechanisms and token validation. Administrators should also implement additional security measures such as role-based access controls, regular security audits, and monitoring of administrative activities within their WordPress installations. The recommended mitigation strategy includes verifying that all administrative forms implement proper CSRF token validation and that the plugin's administrative endpoints require authentication verification for every request. Security teams should also consider implementing web application firewalls to detect and block suspicious administrative requests, while monitoring for unusual patterns in plugin configuration changes that might indicate exploitation attempts. Regular vulnerability assessments of WordPress plugins and themes are essential to identify similar CSRF vulnerabilities in other components of the web application stack, as this type of flaw is particularly common in web applications lacking comprehensive security validation mechanisms.