CVE-2023-6970
Published: 18 January 2024
Summary
CVE-2023-6970 is a medium-severity Cross-site Scripting (CWE-79) vulnerability in Bootstrapped Wp Recipe Maker. Its CVSS base score is 6.1 (Medium).
Operationally, ranked in the top 4.0% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
The WP Recipe Maker plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to reflected cross-site scripting in all versions through 9.1.0. The flaw exists because the plugin fails to sanitize or escape the HTTP Referer header before including it in output generated by templates such as templates/public/print.php, allowing script injection into pages served to visitors.
An unauthenticated attacker can exploit the issue by crafting a malicious Referer value and luring an authenticated user into clicking a link that triggers the vulnerable code path. Successful exploitation results in arbitrary script execution in the context of the victim’s browser, with the CVSS vector indicating network attack vector, low complexity, no required privileges, and required user interaction.
The referenced Wordfence advisory and the WordPress plugin repository changesets document that the vendor addressed the vulnerability by updating the print.php template to apply proper input sanitization and output escaping; site administrators are advised to update to a fixed release. The EPSS score has remained flat at its current peak of 0.2304 with no material post-disclosure rise observed.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-59166
Vulnerability details
The WP Recipe Maker plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting via the ‘Referer' header in all versions up to, and including, 9.1.0 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers…
more
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.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Penetration testing submits XSS payloads to web applications, detecting cross-site scripting flaws for subsequent remediation.
Validates web inputs to reject script-related content that could produce XSS.
Output validation against expected content can reject or sanitize script content in generated web pages, reducing XSS exploitability.