CVE-2024-22027: Improper Input Validation Vulnerability in WordPress Quiz Maker Plugin leading to Denial of Service (DoS) Attack

WordPress is a highly popular Content Management System (CMS) that offers great flexibility with the help of thousands of plugins available to users. However, these plugins can sometimes lead to security vulnerabilities. Today, we're going to discuss CVE-2024-22027, a vulnerability in the WordPress Quiz Maker Plugin prior to version 6.5..6, which could allow a remote authenticated attacker to perform a Denial of Service (DoS) attack against external services.

Overview

The WordPress Quiz Maker Plugin is a tool used by website administrators to create and manage quizzes on WordPress-powered websites. Unfortunately, due to improper input validation on the plugin, this vulnerability exists and has been assigned a Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) identifier of CVE-2024-22027.

Vulnerability Details

CVE-2024-22027 is an improper input validation vulnerability in the WordPress Quiz Maker Plugin. This vulnerability affects versions of the plugin prior to 6.5..6. If an attacker manages to gain access to a system using a vulnerable version of the plugin, they can perform a DoS attack on external services by sending maliciously crafted requests with specifically crafted input data.

To understand the vulnerability better, let's take a look at the code snippet that showcases the problem:

// Quiz Maker Plugin - Vulnerable Code Snippet
function handleQuizRequest() {
  // ... code ...
  $quizID = $_POST['quiz_id'];
  // ... code ...
  $response = file_get_contents("https://external-service.example.com/quiz/{$quizID}";);
  // ... code ...
}

In the code snippet above, the handleQuizRequest() function directly uses the user input from $_POST['quiz_id'] without properly sanitizing the input. This means that an attacker could send a malicious crafted quiz_id that could trigger a DoS attack on the external service.

Mitigations

To mitigate this vulnerability, the developers of the Quiz Maker plugin released version 6.5..6 which contains a fix for CVE-2024-22027. Website administrators using the plugin should update to the latest version to prevent exploitation of this vulnerability.

To apply the fix, update the WordPress Quiz Maker Plugin to version 6.5..6 or later. You can download the latest version of the plugin from the WordPress plugin repository at the following link:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/quiz_maker/

After the plugin has been updated, it is essential to ensure that no other security vulnerabilities remain. Regularly check for any available updates for all WordPress plugins and themes, and always have a strong authentication mechanism in place.

Conclusion

CVE-2024-22027 is a serious security vulnerability in the WordPress Quiz Maker Plugin that could allow a remote authenticated attacker to perform a Denial of Service (DoS) attack on external services. It is crucial for website administrators to update their plugin to the fixed version (6.5..6 or later) to mitigate this vulnerability and maintain the security of their websites.

Timeline

Published on: 01/12/2024 07:15:12 UTC
Last modified on: 01/18/2024 20:02:46 UTC