Vulnerabilities > CVE-2007-1277 - Improper Input Validation vulnerability in Wordpress 2.1.1

047910
CVSS 7.5 - HIGH
Attack vector
NETWORK
Attack complexity
LOW
Privileges required
NONE
Confidentiality impact
PARTIAL
Integrity impact
PARTIAL
Availability impact
PARTIAL
network
low complexity
wordpress
CWE-20
nessus
exploit available
NVD
Published: 2007-03-05
Updated: 2018-10-16

Summary

WordPress 2.1.1, as downloaded from some official distribution sites during February and March 2007, contains an externally introduced backdoor that allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via (1) an eval injection vulnerability in the ix parameter to wp-includes/feed.php, and (2) an untrusted passthru call in the iz parameter to wp-includes/theme.php. This vulnerability is addressed in the following product update: http://wordpress.org/development/2007/03/upgrade-212/

Vulnerable Configurations

Part Description Count
Application
Wordpress
1

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

  • Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables
    This attack pattern involves causing a buffer overflow through manipulation of environment variables. Once the attacker finds that they can modify an environment variable, they may try to overflow associated buffers. This attack leverages implicit trust often placed in environment variables.
  • Server Side Include (SSI) Injection
    An attacker can use Server Side Include (SSI) Injection to send code to a web application that then gets executed by the web server. Doing so enables the attacker to achieve similar results to Cross Site Scripting, viz., arbitrary code execution and information disclosure, albeit on a more limited scale, since the SSI directives are nowhere near as powerful as a full-fledged scripting language. Nonetheless, the attacker can conveniently gain access to sensitive files, such as password files, and execute shell commands.
  • Cross Zone Scripting
    An attacker is able to cause a victim to load content into their web-browser that bypasses security zone controls and gain access to increased privileges to execute scripting code or other web objects such as unsigned ActiveX controls or applets. This is a privilege elevation attack targeted at zone-based web-browser security. In a zone-based model, pages belong to one of a set of zones corresponding to the level of privilege assigned to that page. Pages in an untrusted zone would have a lesser level of access to the system and/or be restricted in the types of executable content it was allowed to invoke. In a cross-zone scripting attack, a page that should be assigned to a less privileged zone is granted the privileges of a more trusted zone. This can be accomplished by exploiting bugs in the browser, exploiting incorrect configuration in the zone controls, through a cross-site scripting attack that causes the attackers' content to be treated as coming from a more trusted page, or by leveraging some piece of system functionality that is accessible from both the trusted and less trusted zone. This attack differs from "Restful Privilege Escalation" in that the latter correlates to the inadequate securing of RESTful access methods (such as HTTP DELETE) on the server, while cross-zone scripting attacks the concept of security zones as implemented by a browser.
  • Cross Site Scripting through Log Files
    An attacker may leverage a system weakness where logs are susceptible to log injection to insert scripts into the system's logs. If these logs are later viewed by an administrator through a thin administrative interface and the log data is not properly HTML encoded before being written to the page, the attackers' scripts stored in the log will be executed in the administrative interface with potentially serious consequences. This attack pattern is really a combination of two other attack patterns: log injection and stored cross site scripting.
  • Command Line Execution through SQL Injection
    An attacker uses standard SQL injection methods to inject data into the command line for execution. This could be done directly through misuse of directives such as MSSQL_xp_cmdshell or indirectly through injection of data into the database that would be interpreted as shell commands. Sometime later, an unscrupulous backend application (or could be part of the functionality of the same application) fetches the injected data stored in the database and uses this data as command line arguments without performing proper validation. The malicious data escapes that data plane by spawning new commands to be executed on the host.

Exploit-Db

  • descriptionWordPress 2.1.1 wp-includes/feed.php ix Variable Arbitrary Command Execution. CVE-2007-1277. Webapps exploit for php platform
    idEDB-ID:29701
    last seen2016-02-03
    modified2007-03-02
    published2007-03-02
    reporterIvan Fratric
    sourcehttps://www.exploit-db.com/download/29701/
    titleWordPress 2.1.1 - Arbitrary Command Execution
  • descriptionWordPress 2.1.1 wp-includes/theme.php iz Variable Arbitrary Command Execution. CVE-2007-1277. Webapps exploit for php platform
    idEDB-ID:29702
    last seen2016-02-03
    modified2007-03-02
    published2007-03-02
    reporterIvan Fratric
    sourcehttps://www.exploit-db.com/download/29702/
    titleWordPress 2.1.1 - wp-includes/theme.php iz Variable Arbitrary Command Execution

Nessus

NASL familyCGI abuses
NASL idWORDPRESS_221_BACKDOOR.NASL
descriptionThe version of WordPress installed on the remote host appears to include a backdoor that allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the remote host, subject to the permissions of the web server user id.
last seen2020-06-01
modified2020-06-02
plugin id24759
published2007-03-02
reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2007-2018 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/24759
titleWordPress < 2.1.1 Multiple Script Backdoors
code
#
# Tenable Network Security, Inc.
#

include("compat.inc");

if (description)
{
  script_id(24759);
  script_version("1.19");
  script_cvs_date("Date: 2018/11/15 20:50:19");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2007-1277");
  script_bugtraq_id(22797);

  script_name(english:"WordPress < 2.1.1 Multiple Script Backdoors");
  script_summary(english:"Attempts to execute a command via a backdoor in WordPress.");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"synopsis", value:
"The remote web server contains a PHP application that is affected by a
remote command execution vulnerability.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"description", value:
"The version of WordPress installed on the remote host appears to
include a backdoor that allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to
execute arbitrary code on the remote host, subject to the permissions
of the web server user id.");
  # http://ifsec.blogspot.com/2007/03/wordpress-code-compromised-to-enable.html
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"http://www.nessus.org/u?22d131ef");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"https://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/461794/30/0/threaded");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"https://wordpress.org/news/2007/03/upgrade-212/");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value:
"Upgrade to WordPress version 2.1.2 or later and overwrite all the old
files, especially those in wp-includes. Also, examine your web logs
for suspicious activity and take appropriate steps if it appears that
it has been compromised.");
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P");
  script_set_cvss_temporal_vector("CVSS2#E:H/RL:OF/RC:C");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"No exploit is required");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploit_available", value:"false");
  script_cwe_id(20);

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2007/03/02");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2007/03/02");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2007/03/02");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"remote");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/a:wordpress:wordpress");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_ATTACK);
  script_family(english:"CGI abuses");

  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2007-2018 Tenable Network Security, Inc.");

  script_dependencies("wordpress_detect.nasl");
  script_require_keys("installed_sw/WordPress", "www/PHP");
  script_require_ports("Services/www", 80);

  exit(0);
}

include("audit.inc");
include("global_settings.inc");
include("misc_func.inc");
include("http.inc");
include("install_func.inc");

app = "WordPress";
get_install_count(app_name:app, exit_if_zero:TRUE);

port = get_http_port(default:80, php:TRUE);

install = get_single_install(
  app_name : app,
  port     : port
);

dir = install['path'];
install_url = build_url(port:port, qs:dir);

http_check_remote_code(
  unique_dir:dir,
  check_request:"/wp-includes/feed.php?ix=system(id);",
  check_result:"uid=[0-9]+.*gid=[0-9]+.*",
  command:"id",
  port:port
);
if (thorough_tests)
{
  http_check_remote_code(
    unique_dir:dir,
    check_request:"/wp-includes/theme.php?iz=id",
    check_result:"uid=[0-9]+.*gid=[0-9]+.*",
    command:"id",
    port:port
  );
}
audit(AUDIT_WEB_APP_NOT_AFFECTED, app, install_url);

References