Overview
The cybersecurity community has observed a significant vulnerability in the Contact Form Entries WordPress plugin versions preceding 1.3.0. This vulnerability, labeled as CVE-2022-3604, is a concern for WordPress users utilizing this plugin as it presents a potential gate for system compromise and data leakage. The severity of the issue is heightened by the popularity of WordPress as a content management system (CMS), meaning that a large number of websites could be affected by this vulnerability.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2022-3604
Severity: High (7.8 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Contact Form Entries WordPress Plugin | Versions before 1.3.0
How the Exploit Works
The CVE-2022-3604 vulnerability arises from the plugin’s failure to properly validate data when outputting it into a CSV file. This lack of validation allows an attacker to inject malicious payloads into these CSV files. When these files are opened, the malicious code can be executed, potentially compromising the system or leading to data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
Below is a conceptual example of how this vulnerability might be exploited. This example assumes that the attacker has gained access to the form submission process:
POST /form-submission HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
firstname=John&lastname=Doe&email=johndoe@example.com&message=Hello,%0D%0A=cmd|'/C calc'!A0In this example, the message field contains a payload designed to launch a calculator application when the CSV file is opened. This is a benign example, but in a real-world scenario, the payload could contain code designed to compromise the system or exfiltrate data.
Mitigation
The vendor has released a patch for this vulnerability, and users are strongly advised to update their Contact Form Entries WordPress plugin to version 1.3.0 or later. For those unable to immediately apply the patch, implementing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation. However, these should not be considered long-term solutions, as they may not fully protect against all potential attack vectors related to this vulnerability.