Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This is a WordPress plugin issue where an attacker could trick an administrator into changing Vuukle plugin settings. It does not indicate data theft or site takeover by itself, but it can affect site behavior and integrity if an admin is socially engineered.
Executive priority
Treat as a normal-priority integrity risk unless the plugin is deployed on high-traffic or revenue-critical sites. Prioritize quick inventory and update/removal because remediation should be low operational burden.
Technical view
CVE-2021-4427 is a CSRF weakness in Vuukle Comments, Reactions, Share Bar, Revenue through version 3.4.31. Missing or incorrect nonce validation in the admin display file allowed forged setting-change requests when a logged-in administrator performed attacker-induced interaction.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to WordPress sites using the Vuukle Comments, Reactions, Share Bar, Revenue plugin at version 3.4.31 or earlier. The provided affected metadata is sparse, so confirm against plugin inventory and vendor records.
Exploitation context
The bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or cited active exploitation. Exploitation requires user interaction from a site administrator, such as clicking a crafted link, and would affect plugin setting integrity rather than confidentiality or availability.
Researcher notes
The core issue is CWE-352 CSRF caused by missing or incorrect nonce validation in an admin partial. CVSS 4.3 reflects network reachability, low complexity, no privileges, required user interaction, and low integrity impact only.
Mitigation direction
- Identify WordPress sites running the Vuukle plugin.
- Update the plugin beyond version 3.4.31 where available.
- If no maintained update exists, disable or remove the plugin.
- Check vendor, Wordfence, and WordPress Trac guidance before remediation.
- Reduce administrator exposure to untrusted links while remediation is pending.
Validation and detection
- Confirm installed plugin name and version from WordPress inventory.
- Review Vuukle plugin settings for unexpected changes.
- Verify the installed version includes nonce validation fixes.
- Check logs for suspicious admin-setting changes around exposure windows.
- Confirm no vulnerable plugin copies remain on staging or backups.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-352: User-session and phishing behavior lookup
Client-side and session-facing weaknesses should be reviewed alongside initial-access and user-execution behaviors. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-4427 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 4.3 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N2.81.4Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
4.3MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/ff28f33f-85d1-4987-975b-ee3bbcb394f4?source=cveCVE reference
- https://blog.nintechnet.com/25-wordpress-plugins-vulnerable-to-csrf-attacks/CVE reference
- https://blog.nintechnet.com/more-wordpress-plugins-and-themes-vulnerable-to-csrf-attacks/CVE reference
- https://blog.nintechnet.com/multiple-wordpress-plugins-fixed-csrf-vulnerabilities-part-3/CVE reference
- https://blog.nintechnet.com/multiple-wordpress-plugins-fixed-csrf-vulnerabilities-part-2/CVE reference
- https://blog.nintechnet.com/multiple-wordpress-plugins-fixed-csrf-vulnerabilities-part-1/CVE reference
- https://blog.nintechnet.com/multiple-wordpress-plugins-fixed-csrf-vulnerabilities-part-5/CVE reference
- https://blog.nintechnet.com/multiple-wordpress-plugins-fixed-csrf-vulnerabilities-part-4/CVE reference
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=2553337%40free-comments-for-wordpress-vuukle&new=2553337%40free-comments-for-wordpress-vuukle&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=CVE reference
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.