CVE-2023-2986 Scanner

The Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce plugin is widely used by WordPress site administrators to manage and recover abandoned shopping carts. Developed by Tyche Softwares, this plugin is essential for e-commerce sites that utilize the WooCommerce platform, helping to convert abandoned carts into successful sales. It provides workflow automation for sending reminders and offering discounts to customers who leave items in their cart without purchasing. This plugin is employed by online stores aiming to increase their sales conversion rates and reduce cart abandonment. Businesses across various industries rely on it for its efficiency in handling left-behind shopping carts. It operates seamlessly within the WooCommerce and WordPress ecosystems, enhancing the overall e-commerce experience for both administrators and customers.

The vulnerability in Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce allows an attacker to bypass authentication, potentially leading to unauthorized access to user accounts. It arises due to insufficient encryption during the process where abandoned cart links are decoded, compromising user credentials. This issue is particularly concerning as it can allow unauthenticated attackers to assume the identities of users who have abandoned carts. The authentication bypass is a critical issue that requires immediate attention as it exposes sensitive customer information and transaction history. Addressing this vulnerability is imperative to maintaining the trust and security of user data. The flaw has been fixed in versions 5.15.1 and further security enhancements were made in version 5.15.2.

Technically, the vulnerability affects how the plugin handles encryption for abandoned cart URLs sent to users. The insufficient encryption allows an attacker to craft a URL that results in unauthorized login mimicking a legitimate user. By exploiting the encryption weakness, the attacker can obtain or generate a valid session cookie, thereby gaining access to the user's account. The vulnerability stems from improper key management and a failure to securely encrypt critical values, leaving the authentication process open to exploitation. A vulnerable endpoint used in the attack vector is the `?wcal_action=checkout_link&user_email=` parameter, where the `validate` parameter is improperly encrypted. The technical flaw effectively bypasses authentication measures intended to protect abandoned cart links.

Exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to unauthorized data access, enabling attackers to retrieve, manipulate, or delete data without user consent. Attackers could impersonate users or extract sensitive personal and transaction information, which might be used for fraudulent activities. For e-commerce sites, this could mean compromised customer trust and potential financial loss both directly and in terms of reputational damage. Businesses might face regulatory consequences if customer data protection laws are breached through successful exploitation. The overall integrity and security posture of the affected systems could be compromised, leading to further vulnerabilities and exploitation opportunities.

REFERENCES

• https://github.com/Alucard0x1/CVE-2023-2986
• https://github.com/TycheSoftwares/woocommerce-abandoned-cart/pull/885#issuecomment-1601813615
• https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=2925274%40woocommerce-abandoned-cart&new=2925274%40woocommerce-abandoned-cart&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=
• https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2023/06/tyche-softwares-addresses-authentication-bypass-vulnerability-in-abandoned-cart-lite-for-woocommerce-wordpress-plugin/
• https://github.com/Ayantaker/CVE-2023-2986