A new vulnerability, designated CVE-2023-47839, has been discovered in the widely used impleCode eCommerce Product Catalog Plugin for WordPress. This vulnerability affects versions 3.3.26 and earlier, potentially impacting a large number of websites since the plugin is among the most widely used e-commerce solutions for WordPress.

The vulnerability is categorized as an "Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation" or 'Cross-site Scripting' (XSS) vulnerability, which can put website users and administrators at risk by allowing an attacker to inject and execute malicious scripts in their browser.

In this post, we will provide a detailed explanation of the vulnerability, including code snippets and links to original references, as well as information about possible exploits.

Understanding the Vulnerability

The key issue within the impleCode eCommerce Product Catalog Plugin that has given rise to this vulnerability is a lack of proper input sanitation and output encoding. Specifically, the plugin fails to properly neutralize user input when generating web pages, allowing an attacker to inject malicious scripts into those pages which are subsequently executed in the context of the victim's browser.

To better understand the vulnerability, let's examine the following code snippet from the affected plugin:

function ic_shortcode_display_product_attributes( $attributes, $product_id ) {
    $output = '<table>';

    foreach ( $attributes as $attribute ) {
        //...
        $output .= '<tr>';
            $output .= '<td>' . $attribute['name'] . '</td>';
            $output .= '<td>' . $attribute['value'] . '</td>';
        $output .= '</tr>';
    }

    $output .= '</table>';

    return $output;
}

In the code snippet above, you can see that the $attribute['name'] and $attribute['value'] variables are echoed directly into the HTML output without any input sanitation or output encoding, making the plugin vulnerable to XSS attacks.

Exploit Details

An attacker seeking to exploit this vulnerability could carry out an attack using a carefully crafted payload that includes malicious JavaScript code. For example:

'<script>alert("XSS")</script>'

The attacker would then need to supply this payload as an attribute name or value within a product listing, in the impleCode eCommerce Product Catalog Plugin. Once that payload has been submitted and stored in the WordPress database, it would be rendered by the plugin as part of the product's attribute table and subsequently executed in the context of the victim's browser.

Protecting Your Website

To protect your website against this vulnerability, you should immediately update the impleCode eCommerce Product Catalog Plugin for WordPress to its latest version, which addresses the issue. You may find the updated plugin here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/ecommerce-product-catalog/

It is also highly recommended to implement content security policies (CSP) for your website to reduce the risk of XSS attacks by controlling the sources of content that can be loaded by the browser.

Additionally, ensure your WordPress installation and all other plugins and themes are kept up to date, as out-of-date software is a major cause of security vulnerabilities being exploited.

Finally, consider implementing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to help protect your site against attacks, even if unpatched vulnerabilities exist within your website's plugins or themes.

Conclusion

The discovery of CVE-2023-47839 highlights the importance of maintaining up-to-date and secure software on your website. By understanding the nature of this vulnerability and taking prompt action to secure your site, you can help ensure your users and administrators are protected against potential exploits. Stay vigilant and practice good security hygiene to keep your website safe.

Timeline

Published on: 11/23/2023 00:15:09 UTC
Last modified on: 11/28/2023 21:07:29 UTC