WordPress Security Audit Checklist for Production Sites
A WordPress security audit checklist should produce clear remediation actions, not a long report nobody executes. Use this guide to review core, plugins, themes, privileg...
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The Contextual Related Posts plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'other_attributes' parameter in versions up to, and including, 4.2.1 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.
Update to version 4.2.2, or a newer patched version
The Content Blocks (Custom Post Widget) plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the plugin's content_block shortcode in all versions up to, and including, 3.3.9 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on user supplied values consumed from user-created content blocks. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.
Update to version 3.4.1, or a newer patched version
The Categories Images plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting in versions up to, and including, 3.3.1, via the 'z_taxonomy_image' shortcode. This is due to the shortcode rendering path passing attacker-controlled class input into a fallback image builder that concatenates HTML attributes without proper escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts that execute when users interact with the injected frontend page via the 'class' shortcode attribute.
Update to version 3.3.2, or a newer patched version
The CMP – Coming Soon & Maintenance Plugin by NiteoThemes plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary file upload and remote code execution in all versions up to, and including, 4.1.16 via the `cmp_theme_update_install` AJAX action. This is due to the function only checking for the `publish_pages` capability (available to Editors and above) instead of `manage_options` (Administrators only), combined with a lack of proper validation on the user-supplied file URL and no verification of the downloaded file's content before extraction. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Administrator-level access and above, to force the server to download and extract a malicious ZIP file from a remote attacker-controlled URL into a web-accessible directory (`wp-content/plugins/cmp-premium-themes/`), resulting in remote code execution. Due to the lack of a nonce for Editors, they are unable to exploit this vulnerability.
Update to version 4.1.17, or a newer patched version
The Page Builder Gutenberg Blocks – CoBlocks plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via external iCal feed data in all versions up to, and including, 3.1.16 due to insufficient output escaping of event titles, descriptions, and locations fetched from external iCal feeds in the Events block rendering function. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.
Update to version 3.1.17, or a newer patched version
The Flipbox Addon for Elementor plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the Flipbox widget's button URL `custom_attributes` field in all versions up to, and including, 2.1.1 due to insufficient validation of custom attribute names. Specifically, the plugin uses `esc_html()` on the attribute name which does not prevent event handler attributes (e.g., `onmouseover`, `onclick`). This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with author-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.
Update to version 2.1.2, or a newer patched version
The Hostel plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting via the 'shortcode_id' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 1.1.6 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that execute if they can successfully trick a user into performing an action such as clicking on a link.
Update to version 1.1.7, or a newer patched version
The Youzify plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'checkin_place_id' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 1.3.6 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.
Update to version 1.3.7, or a newer patched version
The Easy Appointments plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Sensitive Information Exposure in all versions up to, and including, 3.12.21 via the `/wp-json/wp/v2/eablocks/ea_appointments/` REST API endpoint. This is due to the endpoint being registered with `'permission_callback' => '__return_true'`, which allows access without any authentication or authorization checks. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to extract sensitive customer appointment data including full names, email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, appointment descriptions, and pricing information.
Update to version 3.12.22, or a newer patched version
The Pz-LinkCard plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'blogcard' shortcode attributes in all versions up to, and including, 2.5.8.1 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
Use hub pages to review all indexed records for a single WordPress plugin or theme instead of scanning the global feed one advisory at a time.
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