Overview
A concerning vulnerability, CVE-2023-52142, has been discovered in the Cool Plugins Events Shortcodes for the Events Calendar. This vulnerability arises from the improper neutralization of special elements used in an SQL command, more commonly known as SQL Injection vulnerability. This flaw impacts all users of this plugin, and it poses a serious threat due to the potential system compromise or data leakage.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2023-52142
Severity: High (CVSS: 7.6)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Successful exploitation could lead to unauthorized read/write access to the database, potentially resulting in a system compromise or data leakage.
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Cool Plugins Events Shortcodes For The Events Calendar | n/a through 2.3.1
How the Exploit Works
The exploit works by taking advantage of the software’s failure to sufficiently sanitize user-supplied input. Particularly, an attacker can input malicious SQL statements into user input fields, which are then executed by the database. This could result in the alteration of existing data, deletion of data, or even retrieval of sensitive data stored in the database.
Conceptual Example Code
Here’s a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. This is a simple HTTP POST request that includes a malicious SQL statement in the request body.
POST /event_search HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerablewebsite.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
event_name=summer_sale'; DROP TABLE users; --The above code includes a SQL statement that would delete the ‘users’ table from the database if successfully executed. It’s important to note that the actual exploit would depend on the specific database setup and the exact SQL injection vulnerability present.
