CVE-2021-4405 : What You Need to Know

A detailed overview of CVE-2021-4405, a Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerability in the ElasticPress plugin for WordPress.

Understanding CVE-2021-4405

This section covers what CVE-2021-4405 is, its impact, technical details, and mitigation strategies.

What is CVE-2021-4405?

The ElasticPress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 3.5.3. Attackers can exploit missing or incorrect nonce validation to trick site administrators into performing unauthorized actions.

The Impact of CVE-2021-4405

Unauthenticated attackers can send allowed parameters for autosuggest to elasticpress[.]io via forged requests, potentially leading to unauthorized actions on the site.

Technical Details of CVE-2021-4405

This section delves into the specifics of the vulnerability.

Vulnerability Description

The vulnerability arises from missing or incorrect nonce validation on the epio_send_autosuggest_allowed() function in ElasticPress versions up to 3.5.3.

Affected Systems and Versions

The vulnerability affects ElasticPress versions up to 3.5.3.

Exploitation Mechanism

Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by tricking site administrators into triggering a forged request, enabling the unauthorized sending of parameters to elasticpress[.]io.

Mitigation and Prevention

Learn how to protect your system from CVE-2021-4405.

Immediate Steps to Take

Site administrators should update ElasticPress to a non-vulnerable version and be cautious of unexpected or unauthorized actions on the plugin.

Long-Term Security Practices

Developers are advised to implement robust nonce validation and security checks in their plugins to prevent CSRF vulnerabilities.

Patching and Updates

Ensure your ElasticPress plugin is updated to a version beyond 3.5.3 to mitigate the risk of CSRF attacks.