CVE-2022-2108 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting the WordPress plugin 'Wbcom Designs – BuddyPress Group Reviews' up to and including version 2.8.3. The core issue is a missing authorization check (CWE-862) combined with improper nonce validation in several functions responsible for modifying plugin settings and user reviews. This lack of proper capability verification allows unauthenticated attackers to perform unauthorized changes to both the plugin's configuration and the content of reviews on affected WordPress sites. Specifically, attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely without any authentication or user interaction, as indicated by the CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N). The impact is limited to confidentiality and integrity, where attackers can alter review content and settings but cannot cause denial of service or availability issues. No known exploits have been reported in the wild as of the publication date. The vulnerability arises because the plugin fails to verify whether the user has the necessary permissions before allowing changes, and it also does not properly validate nonces, which are security tokens intended to prevent CSRF attacks. This combination makes it trivial for attackers to craft requests that modify reviews or settings arbitrarily. The vulnerability affects all versions of the plugin up to 2.8.3, and no official patch links were provided in the source information, suggesting that users should verify plugin updates or apply manual mitigations. Given that this plugin is used in WordPress environments that implement BuddyPress group reviews, the attack surface is limited to sites using this specific plugin, which may be a subset of WordPress sites focused on community or group review features.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2022-2108 depends on their use of the Wbcom Designs – BuddyPress Group Reviews plugin. Organizations running community platforms, social networks, or review-based sites on WordPress that utilize this plugin are at risk of unauthorized manipulation of user-generated content and plugin settings. This can lead to misinformation, reputational damage, and loss of trust if reviews are altered maliciously. Additionally, unauthorized changes to plugin settings could weaken site security or functionality, potentially exposing the site to further attacks. Although the vulnerability does not directly impact availability, the integrity compromise of reviews and settings can have significant business impact, especially for e-commerce, hospitality, or service platforms relying on authentic user feedback. The fact that exploitation requires no authentication and no user interaction increases the risk of automated attacks targeting vulnerable sites. European organizations subject to GDPR must also consider the regulatory implications of unauthorized data modification, as altered reviews could mislead consumers or violate transparency requirements. Overall, the threat is moderate but should be addressed promptly in affected environments to maintain data integrity and user trust.

1. Immediate action should be to update the Wbcom Designs – BuddyPress Group Reviews plugin to the latest version where the vulnerability is patched. If no official patch is available, consider temporarily disabling the plugin until a fix is released. 2. Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block suspicious requests targeting the plugin’s review modification and settings endpoints, especially those lacking valid nonces or originating from unauthenticated sources. 3. Conduct a thorough audit of user-generated content and plugin settings to identify and revert unauthorized changes that may have occurred before mitigation. 4. Restrict access to the WordPress admin and plugin-specific endpoints using IP whitelisting or VPN access for administrative functions. 5. Monitor logs for unusual POST requests or changes related to the plugin to detect potential exploitation attempts early. 6. Educate site administrators on the importance of applying security updates promptly and verifying plugin permissions and nonce implementations. 7. Consider implementing additional security plugins that enforce strict capability checks and nonce validation as a compensating control until the official patch is applied.