CVE-2022-4327 in Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 01/16/2023
The Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall WordPress plugin through 4.21.85 is prone to a PHP Object Injection vulnerability due to the unsafe use of unserialize() function. A potential attacker, authenticated as high privilege user could exploit this vulnerability by sending specially crafted requests to the web application containing malicious serialized input.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/09/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-4327 resides within the Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall WordPress plugin, affecting versions up to 4.21.85. This represents a critical security flaw that stems from improper handling of user-supplied data within the plugin's codebase. The issue manifests as a PHP Object Injection vulnerability, which occurs when an application deserializes untrusted data without adequate validation or sanitization. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it allows authenticated high-privilege users to execute arbitrary code on the affected system, potentially leading to complete system compromise. The flaw specifically involves the unsafe usage of PHP's unserialize() function, which processes serialized data structures and can execute malicious code during the deserialization process.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability requires an attacker to possess valid administrative credentials or equivalent high-privilege access within the WordPress environment. Once authenticated, the attacker can craft specially formatted HTTP requests that contain malicious serialized PHP objects. These objects, when processed by the vulnerable plugin, trigger the unserialize() function and execute the embedded malicious code. The attack vector typically involves sending crafted payloads through the plugin's administrative interfaces or API endpoints that handle user input. The vulnerability's impact is amplified by the fact that the attacker operates with elevated privileges, allowing them to potentially access sensitive data, modify content, install malware, or establish persistent backdoors within the WordPress installation.
This vulnerability directly maps to CWE-502, which describes the weakness of deserializing untrusted data without proper validation. The attack follows patterns consistent with the ATT&CK framework's technique T1059.007, which involves the use of scripting languages for execution. The operational impact extends beyond simple code execution, as the vulnerability can be leveraged for privilege escalation, data exfiltration, and lateral movement within compromised networks. Organizations running affected versions of this WordPress plugin face significant risk of unauthorized access, data breaches, and potential full system compromise. The vulnerability's exploitation requires minimal technical skill but maximum impact, making it particularly attractive to threat actors targeting WordPress installations.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2022-4327 include immediate patching of the Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall plugin to version 4.21.86 or later, which contains the necessary security fixes. Organizations should also implement network monitoring to detect suspicious serialized data patterns and unusual administrative activities. Additional defensive measures include restricting administrative access to trusted IP addresses, implementing strong authentication controls, and conducting regular security audits of WordPress plugins and themes. Security teams should also consider implementing web application firewalls that can detect and block malicious serialized data attempts. The vulnerability highlights the importance of input validation and secure coding practices, particularly when dealing with data serialization and deserialization operations in web applications. Organizations should also maintain up-to-date vulnerability management processes to quickly identify and remediate similar issues in other components of their WordPress infrastructure.