CVE-2023-23646 in Album Gallery Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 07/17/2023
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in A WP Life Album Gallery – WordPress Gallery plugin <= 1.4.9 versions.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/17/2023
This cross-site request forgery vulnerability exists within the A WP Life Album Gallery WordPress plugin version 1.4.9 and earlier, representing a critical security flaw that allows attackers to execute unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users. The vulnerability stems from the absence of proper request validation mechanisms, specifically missing anti-CSRF tokens in the plugin's administrative interfaces. When users navigate to malicious websites or click on compromised links while logged into their WordPress admin panel, the attacker can leverage this weakness to perform arbitrary actions such as modifying gallery settings, deleting images, or creating new albums without the user's knowledge or consent.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in web applications. The flaw occurs because the plugin fails to implement proper CSRF protection measures, including the generation and validation of unique tokens for each user session. Attackers can craft malicious requests that appear to originate from legitimate administrative users, exploiting the trust relationship between the WordPress admin interface and the browser's cookie-based authentication system. This weakness enables attackers to manipulate the plugin's functionality through forged HTTP requests that bypass standard authorization checks.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data manipulation, as it can lead to complete compromise of gallery management capabilities and potentially serve as a foothold for broader attacks within the WordPress environment. An attacker who successfully exploits this CSRF vulnerability could delete critical gallery content, modify album configurations, or even inject malicious code through compromised administrative functions. The attack vector is particularly dangerous because it requires minimal user interaction beyond visiting a malicious page while authenticated, making it difficult to detect and prevent through traditional user awareness measures alone.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability include implementing proper CSRF token validation throughout the plugin's administrative interfaces, ensuring that each request contains a unique, unpredictable token that correlates with the user's current session. The plugin should generate these tokens server-side and validate them against expected values before processing any administrative requests. Additionally, implementing the SameSite cookie attributes can provide an additional layer of protection by preventing cookies from being sent in cross-site requests. Organizations should immediately update to the latest version of the A WP Life Album Gallery plugin where this vulnerability has been patched, and consider implementing web application firewalls that can detect and block suspicious CSRF patterns. This vulnerability also highlights the importance of regular security audits and adherence to secure coding practices as outlined in the OWASP Top Ten and NIST cybersecurity frameworks for preventing such critical authentication bypass flaws.