This article is a part of our Vulnerability Database (back to index)
Cross-site Scripting occurrences in Accordion
The tab GET parameter of the settings page is not sanitised or escaped when being output back in an HTML attribute, leading to a reflected XSS issue. (2021-05-14, CVE-2021-24283)
An issue was discovered in the Accordion plugin before 2.2.9 for WordPress. The unprotected AJAX wp_ajax_accordions_ajax_import_json action allowed any authenticated user with Subscriber or higher permissions the ability to import a new accordion and inject malicious JavaScript as part of the accordion. (2020-05-28, CVE-2020-13644)
Why Cross-site Scripting can be dangerous
Cross site scripting is an attack where a web page executes code that is injected by an adversary. It usually appears, when users input is presented. This attack can be used to impersonate a user, take over control of the session, or even steal API keys.
The attack can be executed e.g. when you application injects the request parameter directly into the HTML code of the page returned to the user:
https://server.com/confirmation?message=Transaction+Complete
what results in:
<span>Confirmation: Transaction Complete</span>
In that case the message can be modified to become a valid Javascript code, e.g.:
https://server.com/confirmation?message=<script>dangerous javascript code here</script>
and it will be executed locally by the user's browser with full access to the user's personal application/browser data:
<span>Confirmation: <script>dangerous javascript code here</script></span>