CVE-2024-4180 Scanner

The Events Calendar is a widely-used plugin for WordPress, developed by StellarWP. It is designed for website administrators who wish to integrate an event management system into their platforms. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the creation, management, and display of events through a website, making it invaluable for businesses, organizations, and individuals who host events. The plugin is popular across a range of sectors, including education, corporate, and entertainment. Given its integration with WordPress, users can leverage the full features of the CMS while utilizing the plugin's capabilities. Users appreciate its flexibility, compatibility with various themes, and the ability to extend functionality with additional add-ons.

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a vulnerability that allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users. In this case, the vulnerability exists in the The Events Calendar plugin for WordPress, exploited via improper sanitization of user-submitted content during specific AJAX rendering processes. Attackers can execute scripts within a user's browser when they interact with the affected views. The exploitation does rely on some level of user interaction to trigger the script execution. Such vulnerabilities are commonly targeted to compromise user sessions and collect sensitive information. Effective sanitization and validation of user inputs are critical in preventing XSS attacks.

The technical vulnerability lies within the AJAX rendering of views in versions of The Events Calendar below 6.4.0.1. The plugin fails to adequately sanitize user content submitted through certain AJAX endpoints. Specifically, parameters like 'view_data' can be manipulated to include malicious code, such as '

If exploited, an XSS vulnerability in The Events Calendar could lead to serious repercussions for a website. Attackers might hijack user sessions, gaining access to personal and authentication-related information. They could also use such access to impersonate users or administrators, leading to unauthorized data changes or access to restricted areas of the site. Moreover, the executed scripts could deface web content or redirect users to malicious sites. Long-term consequences include damaged reputation and the potential for further exploitation if the issue is not resolved promptly.

REFERENCES

• https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/b2a92316-e404-4a5e-8426-f88df6e87550/
• https://wordpress.org/plugins/the-events-calendar/
• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-4180