CVE-2023-2470 in Add to Feedly Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 05/30/2023
The Add to Feedly WordPress plugin through 1.2.11 does not sanitize and escape its settings, allowing high-privilege users such as admin to perform Cross-Site Scripting attacks even when the unfiltered_html capability is disallowed.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/26/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-2470 affects the Add to Feedly WordPress plugin version 1.2.11 and earlier, presenting a critical cross-site scripting risk that undermines the security posture of WordPress installations. This flaw resides in the plugin's handling of user settings, where insufficient sanitization and escaping mechanisms allow malicious code injection. The vulnerability specifically targets high-privilege users such as administrators, who possess the capability to modify plugin configurations and settings. Even when the WordPress environment restricts unfiltered_html capability for these users, the vulnerability persists, demonstrating a fundamental weakness in the plugin's input validation and output escaping procedures.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the plugin's failure to properly sanitize user-provided input within its settings interface. When administrators configure the plugin's parameters, the input values are stored without adequate sanitization processes that would normally prevent malicious scripts from being executed. This represents a classic XSS flaw that aligns with CWE-79, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Scripting vulnerabilities in web applications. The vulnerability's exploitation occurs through the manipulation of plugin settings where a malicious payload can be injected and subsequently executed in the context of other users' browsers who access the affected WordPress administration interface.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it provides attackers with the ability to perform persistent XSS attacks that can compromise user sessions and potentially escalate privileges within the WordPress environment. An attacker with administrative access can inject malicious scripts that will execute whenever other administrators or users view the plugin settings, creating a vector for session hijacking, data exfiltration, and further exploitation of the compromised WordPress installation. The vulnerability's persistence across different user roles and its ability to bypass WordPress's built-in security mechanisms that typically protect against unfiltered HTML content makes it particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where WordPress is used for content management.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2023-2470 should prioritize immediate plugin updates to versions that address the sanitization and escaping deficiencies. Organizations should implement comprehensive input validation and output escaping mechanisms for all plugin configurations, ensuring that user inputs are properly sanitized before storage and appropriately escaped before display. The remediation process should include verification that the updated plugin versions properly implement proper sanitization routines and that existing configurations do not contain malicious payloads. Security teams should also conduct thorough audits of all installed plugins to identify similar vulnerabilities that may exist in other third-party components, as this vulnerability pattern is commonly observed in WordPress plugins that fail to properly handle user input. Additionally, implementing web application firewalls and content security policies can provide additional layers of protection against exploitation attempts while the primary fix is being deployed. This vulnerability's characteristics align with ATT&CK technique T1548.003, which involves using valid accounts to bypass security restrictions, and demonstrates the importance of proper input validation in preventing privilege escalation attacks through seemingly benign administrative interfaces.