Unauthenticated Order Status Change in WooCommerce Stripe Gateway

Executive Summary

The WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway plugin for WordPress has a vulnerability in the ajax_pay_for_order() function up to version 10.7.0. This function lacks proper capability checks and does not verify if the user owns the order or has the correct order key when processing payments via the wc_stripe_pay_for_order WC-AJAX endpoint.

Although the function validates a nonce, this nonce is publicly available on any WooCommerce page with Express Checkout enabled, so it does not provide sufficient protection.

As a result, unauthenticated attackers can manipulate pending orders by forcing them into a failed status using a fake payment method. This is done by enumerating order IDs sequentially and causing payment exceptions that update the order status to "failed."

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to modify order data without authorization.

Specifically, attackers can force any pending order into a failed status by submitting fake payment information, which disrupts the normal payment process.

This can lead to denial of service for legitimate customers trying to complete their purchases, potential loss of sales, and administrative overhead to resolve incorrect order statuses.

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves unauthorized modification of WooCommerce orders via the wc_stripe_pay_for_order WC-AJAX endpoint, exploiting missing ownership verification. Detection would involve monitoring for unusual or unauthorized AJAX requests to this endpoint, especially those that attempt to change order statuses without proper authentication.

Since the vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to enumerate sequential order IDs and force orders into a failed status, you can detect suspicious activity by checking your web server or application logs for repeated requests to the wc_stripe_pay_for_order endpoint with varying order IDs.

Example commands to detect such activity might include searching your web server logs for requests to the vulnerable endpoint:

• grep 'wc_stripe_pay_for_order' /var/log/apache2/access.log
• grep 'wc_stripe_pay_for_order' /var/log/nginx/access.log

Additionally, monitoring for a high number of failed order status changes or payment exceptions in WooCommerce logs or database entries could indicate exploitation attempts.

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Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate this vulnerability immediately, you should update the WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway plugin to a version later than 10.7.0 where the missing capability check on the ajax_pay_for_order() function is fixed.

If an immediate update is not possible, consider temporarily disabling the Stripe Payment Gateway plugin or restricting access to the wc_stripe_pay_for_order WC-AJAX endpoint to authenticated users only, to prevent unauthenticated attackers from exploiting the missing order ownership verification.

Additionally, monitor your WooCommerce orders for any suspicious status changes to 'failed' that could indicate exploitation attempts.

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