CVE-2022-38470 in Customer Reviews for WooCommerce Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 09/23/2022
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Customer Reviews for WooCommerce plugin <= 5.3.5 at WordPress.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/23/2022
The CVE-2022-38470 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in the Customer Reviews for WooCommerce WordPress plugin version 5.3.5 and earlier. This vulnerability resides within the plugin's handling of user requests and lacks proper anti-CSRF protection mechanisms, making it susceptible to exploitation by malicious actors who can manipulate authenticated users' browsers to perform unauthorized actions. The vulnerability specifically affects e-commerce websites utilizing WooCommerce and customer review functionalities, where attackers can leverage CSRF techniques to execute malicious operations without user consent.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper request validation mechanisms within the plugin's codebase. Attackers can craft malicious requests that appear legitimate to the WordPress application, exploiting the trust relationship between the user's browser and the target website. The vulnerability manifests when users with administrative privileges access maliciously crafted web pages or embedded content, allowing unauthorized modifications to customer reviews, product ratings, or related configuration settings. This flaw operates at the application layer and requires minimal user interaction beyond visiting compromised content, making it particularly dangerous in environments where administrators frequently browse untrusted websites.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data manipulation, as it can lead to significant security breaches within e-commerce platforms. Attackers can exploit this weakness to alter customer reviews, manipulate product ratings, inject malicious content, or potentially escalate privileges within the affected WordPress installation. The vulnerability's exploitation can result in reputational damage for businesses, loss of customer trust, and potential financial losses due to manipulated product information. Additionally, the compromised reviews can be used as a vector for further attacks, including social engineering campaigns that leverage false customer feedback to deceive other users.
Security professionals should prioritize immediate remediation of this vulnerability by updating the Customer Reviews for WooCommerce plugin to version 5.3.6 or later, which contains the necessary CSRF protection patches. Organizations should also implement additional security measures including input validation, proper session management, and regular security audits of third-party plugins. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in software applications, and corresponds to ATT&CK technique T1213.002 related to data from information repositories. Network administrators should monitor for suspicious activities related to review modifications and implement web application firewalls to detect and prevent exploitation attempts. Regular security assessments of WordPress installations and their plugin ecosystems remain essential to prevent similar vulnerabilities from compromising business operations and customer data integrity.