A vulnerability in the Rank Math plugin affects over 2 million WordPress websites. The flaw, identified as a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability or CVE-2024-2536, allows a malicious attacker to inject and execute harmful scripts, putting sensitive data at risk of being compromised. poses a serious risk.
Rank Math is a sophisticated plugin for WordPress websites that has long been a favorite of users looking to streamline their SEO efforts without juggling multiple plugins. To mitigate this flaw, the plugin developer has released a security patch to mitigate the vulnerability.
Rank Math plugin vulnerability description
According to security researchers at Wordfence, a vulnerability in the Rank Math plugin discovered by researcher Ngô Thiên An (ancorn_) was found to be due to the plugin's handling of attributes in HowTo blocks. , prevalent in all versions up to 1.0.214.
This input sanitization and output escaping oversight allows an authenticated attacker with contributor-level or higher access to embed arbitrary web script. As a result, these scripts can potentially run each time a user visits an affected page, potentially compromising the user's session and sensitive data.
“The Rank Math SEO plugin powered by AI SEO Tools for WordPress does not properly sanitize input and escape escaping of output for user-specified attributes in all versions up to 1.0.214. Vulnerable to stored cross-site scripting,” Wordfence said.
What is a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability?
These stored XSS vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to upload a malicious script and launch a browser-based attack that steals session cookies, allowing unauthorized access to websites and sensitive information. outflow is possible.
The root cause of this vulnerability is insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This is a common pitfall in plugin development that allows XSS vulnerabilities to manifest, especially in areas where users are allowed to upload or enter data.
“This allows an authenticated attacker with poster-level access or higher to inject arbitrary web script into a page that is executed each time a user visits the injected page.” added Wordfence.
Input sanitization involves filtering out unwanted input, such as script or HTML, and ensuring that only expected text input is processed. Output escaping, on the other hand, validates the website's output to prevent malicious scripts from reaching her website's browser.
Fortunately, Rank Math quickly addressed this issue by releasing a patch to fix the vulnerability. Website administrators are strongly advised to update the Rank Math SEO plugin to the latest version without delay to protect the security posture of their website.
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