CVE-2023-41876 in WP Gallery Metabox Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 10/25/2023
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Hardik Kalathiya WP Gallery Metabox plugin <= 1.0.0 versions.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/28/2023
The CVE-2023-41876 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in the WP Gallery Metabox plugin developed by Hardik Kalathiya. This vulnerability affects all versions up to and including version 1.0.0, making it a significant security concern for WordPress users who have installed this particular plugin. The vulnerability stems from the plugin's failure to implement proper anti-CSRF mechanisms, creating an exploitable condition that allows malicious actors to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users within the WordPress administration interface.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability occurs due to the absence of proper request validation mechanisms within the plugin's processing endpoints. When a user accesses the WordPress admin area and interacts with the gallery metabox functionality, the plugin fails to verify the origin of requests or validate the presence of required anti-CSRF tokens. This absence of validation means that an attacker can craft malicious requests that appear legitimate to the WordPress system, as they are executed within the context of an authenticated user session. The vulnerability specifically impacts the plugin's ability to distinguish between legitimate administrative actions initiated by authorized users and malicious requests crafted by attackers.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data manipulation, as it allows attackers to perform a wide range of administrative actions within the WordPress environment. An attacker could potentially modify gallery configurations, delete media files, alter plugin settings, or even escalate privileges within the WordPress administration panel. The severity of this impact is amplified by the fact that the vulnerability operates at the plugin level, meaning that successful exploitation could compromise not just the gallery functionality but potentially affect other aspects of the WordPress site's security posture. The vulnerability's exploitation requires minimal user interaction, as the malicious request can be triggered through social engineering techniques or by embedding the exploit within compromised websites.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2023-41876 should prioritize immediate plugin updates to versions that have been patched to include proper CSRF protection mechanisms. Users should also implement additional security measures such as monitoring for unauthorized administrative actions, implementing web application firewalls, and ensuring that all WordPress core files and plugins remain updated. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery issues in software applications. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1566.001, representing the initial access phase through spearphishing attachments, and T1078.004, covering legitimate credentials, as the exploitation relies on authenticated user sessions to execute malicious requests within the target environment.
Organizations should conduct comprehensive security assessments to identify all instances of the affected plugin across their WordPress installations and ensure that proper security controls are implemented. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of implementing robust input validation and request origin verification in web applications, particularly those handling administrative functions. Security teams should also consider implementing additional monitoring for unusual administrative activities that might indicate exploitation attempts, as well as establishing incident response procedures specifically tailored to address CSRF-related security incidents in WordPress environments.