CVE-2022-3879 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting the Car Dealer (Dealership) and Vehicle sales WordPress plugin versions prior to 3.05. The vulnerability arises from improper authorization and lack of Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) protection in an AJAX action within the plugin. Specifically, any authenticated user with minimal privileges, such as a subscriber role, can exploit this flaw to invoke the vulnerable AJAX endpoint. This allows the attacker to install and activate arbitrary plugins from the official WordPress.org repository without requiring administrator privileges or user interaction. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization) and CWE-352 (CSRF), indicating that the plugin fails to properly verify user permissions and does not implement adequate CSRF tokens to prevent unauthorized requests. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 6.5, reflecting a medium severity due to the ease of exploitation (network accessible, low attack complexity), the requirement for authenticated access with low privileges, and the significant impact on integrity (ability to install and activate arbitrary plugins). However, confidentiality and availability impacts are not directly affected. No known exploits in the wild have been reported, and no official patches or updates are linked in the provided data, though the fixed version is 3.05 or later. This vulnerability could be leveraged by attackers to escalate privileges, deploy malicious code, or establish persistent backdoors by installing malicious plugins, thereby compromising the affected WordPress site.

For European organizations using the Car Dealer (Dealership) and Vehicle sales WordPress plugin, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to website integrity and security. Exploitation could lead to unauthorized installation of malicious plugins, enabling attackers to execute arbitrary code, steal sensitive data, deface websites, or use the compromised site as a foothold for further network intrusion. Given that many European businesses in the automotive sales sector rely on WordPress for their online presence, this vulnerability could disrupt business operations, damage brand reputation, and lead to regulatory compliance issues under GDPR if customer data is exposed. The impact is particularly critical for dealerships that integrate their websites with customer management or sales systems, as attackers could pivot from the web server to internal networks. Additionally, the lack of user interaction requirement and the ability for low-privileged users to exploit the flaw increase the risk of insider threats or compromised low-level accounts being leveraged for attacks.

1. Immediate upgrade of the Car Dealer (Dealership) and Vehicle sales WordPress plugin to version 3.05 or later where the vulnerability is patched. 2. Restrict user roles and permissions rigorously, ensuring that only trusted users have authenticated access to the WordPress backend, especially limiting subscriber or low-privilege accounts. 3. Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to monitor and block suspicious AJAX requests targeting the vulnerable plugin endpoints. 4. Conduct regular audits of installed plugins to detect unauthorized additions or activations. 5. Employ security plugins that monitor for privilege escalation attempts and unauthorized plugin installations. 6. Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all authenticated users to reduce the risk of compromised credentials being exploited. 7. Monitor server and application logs for unusual activity related to plugin management actions. 8. If upgrading immediately is not feasible, temporarily disable or restrict access to the vulnerable AJAX actions via custom code or security plugins to prevent exploitation. 9. Educate users about the risks of phishing or social engineering that could lead to account compromise, as authenticated access is required for exploitation.