CVE-2023-5802 - Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Mihai Iova WordPress Knowledge base & Documentation Plugin – WP Knowledgebase plugin <= 1.3.4 versions

In the world of cybersecurity, it's crucial for the companies and developers to stay ahead of potential vulnerabilities to secure their products or services. Today, we will discuss a cybersecurity vulnerability, specifically a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), in the Mihai Iova WordPress Knowledge base & Documentation Plugin – WP Knowledgebase plugin. This vulnerability has been assigned the ID CVE-2023-5802 and affects versions <= 1.3.4. In this post, we'll go through the vulnerability details, provide a code snippet showcasing the issue, and guide you to the original references for more information.

Vulnerability Details

A CSRF vulnerability occurs when an attacker can alter the state of an application on behalf of an authenticated user without their consent. In the case of WP Knowledgebase plugin, the vulnerability affects the way the plugin handles the deletion of knowledge base articles. The problem arises because the plugin does not properly validate the user's request, allowing an attacker to craft a malicious link or another type of request that could cause a deletion of an article when the authenticated user opens the link or makes the request.

Exploit Details

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by crafting a form or a link that triggers the deletion of an article when an authenticated user clicks on it. The attacker could then trick the user into clicking the link or submitting the form via social engineering tactics, like phishing emails.

Here's a simple example of how the exploit could be performed

<form action="http://example.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=wp_knowledgebase"; method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="ID" value="knowledgebase_article_ID">
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="delete">
<input type="submit" value="Delete Article">
</form>

In this example, the attacker would replace knowledgebase_article_ID with the ID of the targeted knowledge base article. When an authenticated user clicks the "Delete Article" button, the article would be deleted without user consent or proper validation.

Original References

For more information about this vulnerability and how it was discovered, you can refer to the original CVE assignment and the plugin developer's website:

- CVE-2023-5802: https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2023-5802
- Mihai Iova WordPress Knowledge base & Documentation Plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-knowledgebase/

Conclusion and Recommendations

In conclusion, the CSRF vulnerability (CVE-2023-5802) in WP Knowledgebase plugin versions <= 1.3.4 poses a risk to users and their data. To mitigate this risk, it's essential that plugin users update to the latest version, and developers ensure proper validation and security measures are put in place.

A few recommendations to enhance the security of the plugin would be to implement proper CSRF protection, like using security tokens (or nonces) and validating the user's request before performing an action. Additionally, it's always a good practice to educate users on how to avoid social engineering attacks, such as not clicking on suspicious links received via emails, messages, or social media.

Stay safe, and keep your applications updated to minimize the risk of cybersecurity vulnerabilities!

Timeline

Published on: 10/26/2023 12:15:08 UTC
Last modified on: 10/30/2023 16:23:18 UTC