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Unpatched Flaw in Discontinued Plugin Exposes WordPress Sites to Attacks

A stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Contact Form 7 Datepicker WordPress plugin will not receive a patch, leaving websites exposed to attacks, WordPress security firm Defiant reports.

A stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Contact Form 7 Datepicker WordPress plugin will not receive a patch, leaving websites exposed to attacks, WordPress security firm Defiant reports.

The plugin, designed to integrate with the Contact Form 7 contact form management plugin, had over 100,000 installations when the vulnerability was discovered. The authenticated XSS bug is considered high severity.

However, the plugin is no longer maintained, meaning that the vulnerability won’t receive a patch and that all installations remain affected.

The WordPress plugin’s team has already removed Contact Form 7 Datepicker from the repository for review. Contacted by Defiant, the developer confirmed they had no plans to maintain the application. Contact Form 7, which has over 5 million active installations, is not affected.

Contact Form 7 Datepicker was designed to help users add a datepicker to forms generated by Contact Form 7, and also features the ability to modify settings for these datepickers.

The discovered vulnerability resides in an AJAX action calling a function the plugin uses to perform its functionality, which lacks 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,” Defiant explains.

This would result in the stored JavaScript code being executed in the browser when an authorized user creates or modifies a contact form. An attacker could abuse this to steal an administrator’s session or to add their own administrative accounts.

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Site admins are advised to deactivate and remove the Contact Form 7 Datepicker plugin and find an alternative plugin that can provide similar functionality.

Defiant has refrained from publishing details on the discovered vulnerability, due to the large number of impacted websites.

Related: Critical Flaw in SEO Plugin Exposed Many WordPress Sites to Attacks

Related: WPvivid Backup Plugin Flaw Leads to WordPress Database Leak

Related: Flaws in Popup Builder Plugin Impacted Over 100,000 WordPress Sites

Written By

Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.

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