Over a Million WordPress Sites Forcibly Updated to Patch a Critical Plugin Vulnerability

Jun 17, 2022

WordPress websites using a widely used plugin named Ninja Forms
have been updated automatically to remediate a critical security
vulnerability that’s suspected of having been actively exploited in
the wild.

The issue, which relates to a case of code injection, is rated
9.8 out of 10 for severity and affects multiple versions starting
from 3.0. It has been fixed in 3.0.34.2, 3.1.10, 3.2.28, 3.3.21.4,
3.4.34.2, 3.5.8.4, and 3.6.11.

Ninja Forms is a customizable contact form builder ^[1] that has over 1 million
installations.

According to Wordfence, the bug “made it possible for
unauthenticated attackers to call a limited number of methods in
various Ninja Forms classes, including a method that unserialized
user-supplied content, resulting in Object Injection.”

“This could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code or delete
arbitrary files on sites where a separate [property oriented
programming] chain was present,” Chloe Chamberland of Wordfence
noted ^[2].

Successful exploitation of the flaw could allow an attacker to
achieve remote code execution and completely take over a vulnerable
WordPress site.

Users of Ninja Forms are advised to ensure that their WordPress
sites are updated to run the latest patched version to prevent any
possible exploitation attempts in the wild.

References

^{^}
customizable contact form builder
(wordpress.org)
^{^}
noted
(www.wordfence.com)

The Hacker News Headlines

Google Chrome’s New Feature Alerts Users About Auto-Removal of Malicious Extensions

Aug 18, 2023

The Hacker News Headlines

New Apple iOS 16 Exploit Enables Stealthy Cellular Access Under Fake Airplane Mode

Aug 18, 2023

The Hacker News Headlines

China-Linked Bronze Starlight Group Targeting Gambling Sector with Cobalt Strike Beacons

Aug 18, 2023

OWASP TOP !0

Injection. Injection flaws, such as SQL, NoSQL, OS, and LDAP injection, occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command or query. The attacker’s hostile data can trick the interpreter into executing unintended commands or accessing data without proper authorization. Broken Authentication. Application functions related to authentication and session management are often implemented incorrectly, allowing attackers to compromise passwords, keys, or session tokens, or to exploit other implementation flaws to assume other users’ identities temporarily or permanently. Sensitive Data Exposure. Many web applications and APIs do not properly protect sensitive data, such as financial, healthcare, and PII. Attackers may steal or modify such weakly protected data to conduct credit card fraud, identity theft, or other crimes. Sensitive data may be compromised without extra protection, such as encryption at rest or in transit, and requires special precautions when exchanged with the browser. XML External Entities (XXE). Many older or poorly configured XML processors evaluate external entity references within XML documents. External entities can be used to disclose internal files using the file URI handler, internal file shares, internal port scanning, remote code execution, and denial of service attacks. Broken Access Control. Restrictions on what authenticated users are allowed to do are often not properly enforced. Attackers can exploit these flaws to access unauthorized functionality and/or data, such as access other users’ accounts, view sensitive files, modify other users’ data, change access rights, etc. Security Misconfiguration. Security misconfiguration is the most commonly seen issue. This is commonly a result of insecure default configurations, incomplete or ad hoc configurations, open cloud storage, misconfigured HTTP headers, and verbose error messages containing sensitive information. Not only must all operating systems, frameworks, libraries, and applications be securely configured, but they must be patched/upgraded in a timely fashion. Cross-Site Scripting XSS. XSS flaws occur whenever an application includes untrusted data in a new web page without proper validation or escaping, or updates an existing web page with user-supplied data using a browser API that can create HTML or JavaScript. XSS allows attackers to execute scripts in the victim’s browser which can hijack user sessions, deface web sites, or redirect the user to malicious sites. Insecure Deserialization. Insecure deserialization often leads to remote code execution. Even if deserialization flaws do not result in remote code execution, they can be used to perform attacks, including replay attacks, injection attacks, and privilege escalation attacks. Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities. Components, such as libraries, frameworks, and other software modules, run with the same privileges as the application. If a vulnerable component is exploited, such an attack can facilitate serious data loss or server takeover. Applications and APIs using components with known vulnerabilities may undermine application defenses and enable various attacks and impacts. Insufficient Logging & Monitoring. Insufficient logging and monitoring, coupled with missing or ineffective integration with incident response, allows attackers to further attack systems, maintain persistence, pivot to more systems, and tamper, extract, or destroy data. Most breach studies show time to detect a breach is over 200 days, typically detected by external parties rather than internal processes or monitoring.

Over a Million WordPress Sites Forcibly Updated to Patch a Critical Plugin Vulnerability

References

Related Post

Google Chrome’s New Feature Alerts Users About Auto-Removal of Malicious Extensions

New Apple iOS 16 Exploit Enables Stealthy Cellular Access Under Fake Airplane Mode

China-Linked Bronze Starlight Group Targeting Gambling Sector with Cobalt Strike Beacons

You missed

Protected: Rotary VI EAST

Protected: BetterCyberCareer Group

Protected: Benin Club 1931 – Official

Protected: Whatsapp AI Automation Group