CVE-2023-45656 in Lazy Load for Videos Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 10/25/2023
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Kevin Weber Lazy Load for Videos plugin <= 2.18.2 versions.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/03/2023
The CVE-2023-45656 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in the Kevin Weber Lazy Load for Videos WordPress plugin, affecting versions up to and including 2.18.2. This vulnerability resides within the plugin's handling of administrative requests, specifically targeting the plugin's settings management functionality. The flaw allows authenticated attackers with sufficient privileges to manipulate the plugin's configuration through maliciously crafted requests, potentially leading to unauthorized changes in video loading behavior and associated settings.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF tokens in the plugin's administrative interfaces. When administrators access the plugin's settings pages, the requests lack sufficient validation mechanisms to verify the authenticity of the request origin. This weakness enables attackers who can convince a logged-in administrator to visit a malicious website or click on a crafted link to perform unauthorized actions within the plugin's administrative context. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it operates at the administrative level, meaning successful exploitation could allow attackers to modify core video loading parameters, potentially affecting site performance, user experience, or even enabling further attack vectors through altered plugin behavior.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple configuration changes, as it provides attackers with a potential foothold for more extensive compromise. An attacker could modify video loading settings to redirect traffic through malicious endpoints, alter caching behaviors that might affect site performance, or manipulate plugin features in ways that could facilitate data exfiltration or other malicious activities. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous in environments where administrators frequently visit external websites or where the plugin is used in conjunction with other security-sensitive features. This CSRF flaw effectively undermines the principle of least privilege by allowing unauthorized modifications to plugin configurations that could have cascading effects on site functionality and security posture.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2023-45656 should prioritize immediate plugin updates to versions that have addressed the CSRF vulnerability, as this represents the most effective remediation approach. System administrators should also implement additional security controls such as role-based access restrictions, ensuring that only trusted users have administrative privileges for plugin management. Network-level protections including web application firewalls and monitoring for suspicious administrative requests can provide additional defense-in-depth measures. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery weaknesses, and may be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for credential harvesting through social engineering approaches that could exploit this vulnerability. Organizations should also conduct comprehensive security audits of their WordPress installations to identify other potential CSRF vulnerabilities in third-party plugins and themes that may be similarly affected by this class of weakness.