Pierluigi Paganini
April 03, 2020
Administrators of WordPress sites using the Contact Form 7 Datepicker plugin are recommended to remove or deactivate it to prevent attackers from exploiting a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability to create rogue admins or taking over admin sessions.
The ‘Contact Form 7 Datepicker‘ is open-source software that allows adding a date field to the user interface of the Contact Form 7 WordPress plugin, which is a contact form management plugin currently used on over 5 million websites. The plugin was installed on more than 100k WordPress sites using the Contact Form 7 Datepicker plugin. The flaw was discovered by researchers from the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team.
“On April 1, 2020, the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team discovered a stored Cross Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Contact Form 7 Datepicker, a WordPress plugin installed on over 100,000 sites.” reported the analysis published by WordFence. “As the plugin developer’s github page indicated that the plugin was no longer being maintained, we contacted the WordPress plugins team with our disclosure, and they immediately removed the plugin from the repository for review. “
The plugin has been closed on April 1, 2020, and is no more available for download. Its contributors and developers confirmed that it will be no longer maintained and it will be definitively removed from the WordPress repository.
If you have one of the 100k+ WordPress sites using the Contact Form 7 Datepicker plugin, we recommend finding an alternative. Wordfence's built-in XSS protection does block against exploits, but the plugin is no longer being actively maintained. https://t.co/1lPem7UBDY
— Wordfence (@wordfence) April 2, 2020
The Contact Form 7 Datepicker plugin allows users to add a datepicker to forms generated by Contact Form 7. The plugin also allows the users to modify settings for these datepickers.
“In order to process these settings, it registered an AJAX action calling a function that failed to include a capability check or a nonce check. As such, it was possible for a logged-in attacker with minimal permissions, such as a subscriber, to send a crafted request containing malicious JavaScript which would be stored in the plugin’s settings.” continues the analysis.
“The next time an authorized user created or modified a contact form, the stored JavaScript would be executed in their browser, which could be used to steal an administrator’s session or even create malicious administrative users.”
Admins of websites using the flawed plugin should search for an alternative to use on their websites.
Unfortunately, the number of attacks attempting to exploit vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins continues to increase.
A few weeks ago researchers at NinTechNet reported an ongoing campaign that was actively exploiting a zero-day flaw in the WordPress Flexible Checkout Fields for WooCommerce plugin. Other attacks recently observed are:
I believe it is very important to protect WordPress install with dedicated solutions, I’m currently using WordFence solution, the company provided with a license to evaluate the premium features.
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