CVE-2022-3590 Scanner

WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) utilized globally by a variety of organizations, businesses, and individuals for creating and managing websites easily. With its extensive library of plugins and themes, WordPress is popular among both novice and experienced web developers. It provides a customizable platform that powers millions of websites, including personal blogs, portfolios, and business sites. Users appreciate its user-friendly dashboard, extensive support community, and frequent updates. WordPress is used because of its flexibility, ease of use, and comprehensive ecosystem that supports diverse online projects. Its widespread adoption makes it a significant target for vulnerabilities.

The Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in WordPress affects the security of the application by allowing attackers to get access to internal systems. SSRF exploits application features interacting with external systems or endpoints and can be potentially harmful when unchecked. This specific vulnerability arises from a blind SSRF vulnerability in the pingback feature within WordPress. Attackers can leverage this vulnerability to send requests to internal hosts that should ordinarily be unreachable due to protections. Such vulnerabilities can lead to serious security breaches, including information disclosure and unauthorized access. Hence, it requires prompt attention and remediation.

The vulnerability is due to a race condition between validation checks and the HTTP request process, which allows unauthorized users to exploit the pingback feature of WordPress. By sending properly crafted XML data to the xmlrpc.php endpoint, it is possible for an attacker to trick the system into making unauthorized requests internally. This is an unauthenticated vulnerability, meaning the attacker does not require valid credentials to exploit it. Exploiting this vulnerability involves inducing server requests to arbitrary hosts, possibly compromising sensitive data or leveraging further attacks. Therefore, addressing this issue is crucial for maintaining the integrity of affected WordPress deployments.

Exploiting the Server-Side Request Forgery vulnerability can lead to numerous adverse effects on any WordPress installation. It can potentially leak sensitive information from internal networks by bypassing firewall protections. In severe cases, the adversary can use it to make unauthorized connections, possibly laying the groundwork for further attacks such as internal scanning, network mapping, or even lateral movement within a network. The exploit could be the precursor to more significant security breaches if internal endpoints expose further vulnerabilities. Consequently, it leaves an open channel which attackers can exploit to access restricted services or files.

REFERENCES

• https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/c8814e6e-78b3-4f63-a1d3-6906a84c1f11
• https://www.sonarsource.com/blog/wordpress-core-unauthenticated-blind-ssrf/