Executive Summary

The Animate Your Content plugin for WordPress has a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in its 'animation-set' shortcode in versions up to and including 1.0.0.

This vulnerability arises because the plugin does not properly sanitize or escape user-supplied attributes in the shortcode_args_to_html_attrs() function. Specifically, it concatenates shortcode attribute values directly into double-quoted HTML attributes without using the esc_attr() function.

As a result, authenticated attackers with contributor-level access or higher can inject arbitrary web scripts into pages. These scripts will execute whenever any user accesses the injected page.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability allows an attacker with contributor-level access or above to inject malicious scripts into WordPress pages.

When other users visit these pages, the injected scripts execute in their browsers, potentially leading to theft of sensitive information, session hijacking, or other malicious actions.

Because the attack is stored, the malicious script persists on the site and affects all users who view the compromised content.

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) via the 'animation-set' shortcode in the Animate Your Content WordPress plugin versions up to 1.0.0. Detection involves identifying if the vulnerable plugin version is installed and if any shortcode attributes are improperly sanitized.

To detect this on your system, you can check the installed plugin version and scan for usage of the 'animation-set' shortcode with suspicious or malicious attribute values.

Suggested commands to detect the vulnerable plugin and potential exploit attempts include:

• Check the plugin version via WP-CLI: wp plugin list | grep animate-your-content
• Search WordPress content for usage of the 'animation-set' shortcode: wp db query "SELECT ID, post_content FROM wp_posts WHERE post_content LIKE '%[animation-set%'"
• Look for suspicious script tags or event handlers in shortcode attributes within posts or pages.
• Monitor web server logs for unusual requests or payloads targeting the shortcode parameters.

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Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate this vulnerability, you should update the Animate Your Content plugin for WordPress to a version later than 1.0.0 where the issue is fixed.

If an update is not immediately available, restrict contributor-level access and above to trusted users only, as the vulnerability requires authenticated users with contributor-level access or higher to exploit.

Additionally, consider implementing web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block attempts to inject malicious scripts via the 'animation-set' shortcode.

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