CVE-2024-13627 Scanner

OWL Carousel Slider is a widely used plugin for the WordPress platform, created to assist website administrators in showcasing content using responsive carousels. It is primarily used by content creators, marketers, and web developers aiming to improve user engagement through dynamic presentation of images, videos, and other media content. The plugin is employed by a vast number of WordPress sites, particularly those focusing on providing a visually appealing user experience. With the plugin's capabilities, users can easily configure slide animations and styles to enhance the design and professionalism of their websites. Its open-source nature allows for extensions and customizations, making it flexible and adaptable to varying user needs. The plugin's ease of integration with WordPress makes it a popular choice for enhancing site aesthetics without requiring extensive coding knowledge.

The Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability pertains to the improper handling of user input, which allows malicious actors to inject and execute scripts within the browser of targeted users. This specific vulnerability occurs in the OWL Carousel Slider WordPress plugin version 2.2, wherein user inputs are not adequately sanitized. As a consequence, attackers can craft URLs containing malicious scripts, which are then reflected back by the plugin, enabling execution in the context of high-privilege users. This can lead to unauthorized access, data theft, and potential compromise of user accounts. The vulnerability impacts the plugin's function of rendering input-based content, providing a vector for exploitation by threat actors. Addressing such vulnerabilities is crucial to maintaining the integrity and security of the web environments using this plugin.

The technical breakdown of the vulnerability shows that unsanitized parameters are output within the plugin's HTML content, particularly on pages utilized for editing plugin information. The vulnerability specifically affects the `id` parameter in HTTP GET requests made to admin pages rendered by the plugin. By manipulating this endpoint, an attacker can inject scripts that are executed in the administrator's session if the crafted URL is visited. The scripts leverage existing privileges of authenticated users, which means successful exploits can occur without direct authenticated access by the attacker. This improper sanitization highlights a systemic issue where the lack of checks allows external scripts to breach web security confines. Proper validation and escaping of input data in web applications are fundamental to mitigating such vulnerabilities.

Exploitation of this XSS vulnerability may lead to diverse adverse effects, including identity theft, data theft, and unauthorized actions performed on behalf of legitimate users. High privilege accounts, once compromised, can be used to propagate further attacks, such as altering site content or distributions of malware to site visitors. Moreover, session hijacking could occur, whereby an attacker can assume a victim's identity within web applications. Compromises also extend to potential loss of sensitive information stored in the site's databases, affecting site integrity and user trust. Such breaches highlight the importance of maintaining robust input sanitization practices to safeguard web applications against exploitation.

REFERENCES

• https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/f7e425a1-ae49-4ea6-abe4-42ba2713af8f/