WordPress Simple 301 Redirects by BetterLinks Plugin <= 2.0.3 is vulnerable to Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards
Risks
CVSS 9.9
This vulnerability is highly dangerous and expected to become mass exploited.
Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards
Unvalidated redirects and forwards could allow a malicious actor to redirect users from one site to the other due to the redirect URL not being validated. Users could be tricked to visiting a legitimate site to then be redirected to a malicious site and cause a phishing incident.
This is a general description of this vulnerability type, specific impact varies case by case. CVSS score is a way to evaluate and rank reported vulnerabilities in a standardized and repeatable way, but it is not ideal for WordPress.
Solutions
We advise to mitigate or resolve the vulnerability immediately.
Automatically mitigate vulnerabilities and keep your websites safe
Patchstack has issued a virtual patch to mitigate this issue by blocking any attacks until you have updated to a fixed version.
Update to version 2.0.4 or later.
Update to version 2.0.4 or later to remove the vulnerability. Patchstack users can turn on auto-update for vulnerable plugins only.
Timeline
Early warning sent out to Patchstack customers
26 May 2021
Published by Patchstack
28 May 2021
Plugin page
Over 70% of all known WordPress vulnerabilities were originally published by Patchstack in 2023 and hundreds of popular plugins such as Elementor, RankMath and WProcket have set Patchstack as their official security partner.
Patchstack vPatching auto-mitigates security vulnerabilities even when there's no official patch available. It's the fastest and most effective way to eliminate new security vulnerabilities without sacrificing performance.
Hackers automate attacks against new security vulnerabilities to take over as many websites as they can before users have time to patch and update. The attacks are opportunistic and victims are not chosen - everyone is a target.
We recommend reaching out to your hosting provider for server-side malware scanning or use a professional incident response service. Don't rely on plugin based malware scanners as they are commonly tampered with by malware.
