Vulnerabilities > CVE-2015-5622 - Cross-site Scripting vulnerability in multiple products

047910
CVSS 3.5 - LOW
Attack vector
NETWORK
Attack complexity
MEDIUM
Privileges required
SINGLE
Confidentiality impact
NONE
Integrity impact
PARTIAL
Availability impact
NONE
network
wordpress
debian
CWE-79
nessus

Summary

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in WordPress before 4.2.3 allows remote authenticated users to inject arbitrary web script or HTML by leveraging the Author or Contributor role to place a crafted shortcode inside an HTML element, related to wp-includes/kses.php and wp-includes/shortcodes.php.

Vulnerable Configurations

Part Description Count
Application
Wordpress
453
OS
Debian
1

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

  • 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.
  • Embedding Scripts in Non-Script Elements
    This attack is a form of Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) where malicious scripts are embedded in elements that are not expected to host scripts such as image tags (<img>), comments in XML documents (< !-CDATA->), etc. These tags may not be subject to the same input validation, output validation, and other content filtering and checking routines, so this can create an opportunity for an attacker to tunnel through the application's elements and launch a XSS attack through other elements. As with all remote attacks, it is important to differentiate the ability to launch an attack (such as probing an internal network for unpatched servers) and the ability of the remote attacker to collect and interpret the output of said attack.
  • Embedding Scripts within Scripts
    An attack of this type exploits a programs' vulnerabilities that are brought on by allowing remote hosts to execute scripts. The attacker leverages this capability to execute scripts to execute his/her own script by embedding it within other scripts that the target software is likely to execute. The attacker must have the ability to inject script into script that is likely to be executed. If this is done, then the attacker can potentially launch a variety of probes and attacks against the web server's local environment, in many cases the so-called DMZ, back end resources the web server can communicate with, and other hosts. With the proliferation of intermediaries, such as Web App Firewalls, network devices, and even printers having JVMs and Web servers, there are many locales where an attacker can inject malicious scripts. Since this attack pattern defines scripts within scripts, there are likely privileges to execute said attack on the host. Of course, these attacks are not solely limited to the server side, client side scripts like Ajax and client side JavaScript can contain malicious scripts as well. In general all that is required is for there to be sufficient privileges to execute a script, but not protected against writing.
  • Cross-Site Scripting in Error Pages
    An attacker distributes a link (or possibly some other query structure) with a request to a third party web server that is malformed and also contains a block of exploit code in order to have the exploit become live code in the resulting error page. When the third party web server receives the crafted request and notes the error it then creates an error message that echoes the malformed message, including the exploit. Doing this converts the exploit portion of the message into to valid language elements that are executed by the viewing browser. When a victim executes the query provided by the attacker the infected error message error message is returned including the exploit code which then runs in the victim's browser. XSS can result in execution of code as well as data leakage (e.g. session cookies can be sent to the attacker). This type of attack is especially dangerous since the exploit appears to come from the third party web server, who the victim may trust and hence be more vulnerable to deception.
  • Cross-Site Scripting Using Alternate Syntax
    The attacker uses alternate forms of keywords or commands that result in the same action as the primary form but which may not be caught by filters. For example, many keywords are processed in a case insensitive manner. If the site's web filtering algorithm does not convert all tags into a consistent case before the comparison with forbidden keywords it is possible to bypass filters (e.g., incomplete black lists) by using an alternate case structure. For example, the "script" tag using the alternate forms of "Script" or "ScRiPt" may bypass filters where "script" is the only form tested. Other variants using different syntax representations are also possible as well as using pollution meta-characters or entities that are eventually ignored by the rendering engine. The attack can result in the execution of otherwise prohibited functionality.

Nessus

  • NASL familyFedora Local Security Checks
    NASL idFEDORA_2015-12148.NASL
    description**WordPress 4.2.4 Security and Maintenance Release** WordPress 4.2.4 is now available. This is a security release for all previous versions and we strongly encourage you to update your sites immediately. This release addresses six issues, including three cross-site scripting vulnerabilities and a potential SQL injection that could be used to compromise a site, which were discovered by Marc-Alexandre Montpas of Sucuri, Helen Hou-Sandi of the WordPress security team, Netanel Rubin of Check Point, and Ivan Grigorov. It also includes a fix for a potential timing side-channel attack, discovered by Johannes Schmitt of Scrutinizer, and prevents an attacker from locking a post from being edited, discovered by Mohamed A. Baset. Our thanks to those who have practiced responsible disclosure of security issues. WordPress 4.2.4 also fixes four bugs. For more information, see: the release notes or consult the list of changes. - the release notes: https://codex.wordpress.org/Version_4.2.4 - the list of changes: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/log/branches/4.2?rev=3 3573&stop_rev=33396 **WordPress 4.2.3 Security and Maintenance Release** WordPress 4.2.3 is now available. This is a security release for all previous versions and we strongly encourage you to update your sites immediately. WordPress versions 4.2.2 and earlier are affected by a cross-site scripting vulnerability, which could allow users with the Contributor or Author role to compromise a site. This was initially reported by Jon Cave and fixed by Robert Chapin, both of the WordPress security team, and later reported by Jouko Pynnonen. We also fixed an issue where it was possible for a user with Subscriber permissions to create a draft through Quick Draft. Reported by Netanel Rubin from Check Point Software Technologies. Our thanks to those who have practiced responsible disclosure of security issues. WordPress 4.2.3 also contains fixes for 20 bugs from 4.2. For more information, see : - the release notes: https://codex.wordpress.org/Version_4.2.3 - the list of changes: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/log/branches/4.2?rev=3 3382&stop_rev=32430 Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.
    last seen2020-06-05
    modified2015-08-14
    plugin id85389
    published2015-08-14
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2015-2020 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/85389
    titleFedora 21 : wordpress-4.2.4-1.fc21 (2015-12148)
  • NASL familyDebian Local Security Checks
    NASL idDEBIAN_DSA-3328.NASL
    descriptionSeveral vulnerabilities have been found in Wordpress, the popular blogging engine. - CVE-2015-3429 The file example.html in the Genericicons icon font package and twentyfifteen Wordpress theme allowed for cross site scripting. - CVE-2015-5622 The robustness of the shortcodes HTML tags filter has been improved. The parsing is a bit more strict, which may affect your installation. - CVE-2015-5623 A cross site scripting vulnerability allowed users with the Contributor or Author role to elevate their privileges. The oldstable distribution (wheezy) is only affected by CVE-2015-5622. This less critical issue will be fixed at a later time.
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id85352
    published2015-08-13
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2015-2018 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/85352
    titleDebian DSA-3328-1 : wordpress - security update
  • NASL familyCGI abuses
    NASL idWORDPRESS_4_2_3.NASL
    descriptionAccording to its version number, the WordPress application running on the remote web server is either version 3.7.x prior to 3.7.9, 3.8.x prior to 3.8.9, 3.9.x prior to 3.9.7, 4.1.x prior to 4.1.6, or 4.2.x prior to 4.2.3. It is, therefore, potentially affected by the following vulnerabilities : - A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists due to a flaw in the Shortcode API in which shortcodes embedded in HTML tags are not properly handled before returning the input to the users. A remote, authenticated attacker can exploit this by using a crafted request to execute arbitrary code in the user
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id85082
    published2015-07-29
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2015-2018 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/85082
    titleWordPress < 3.7.9 / 3.8.9 / 3.9.7 / 4.1.6 / 4.2.3 Multiple Vulnerabilities
  • NASL familyDebian Local Security Checks
    NASL idDEBIAN_DLA-294.NASL
    descriptionSeveral vulnerabilities have been fixed in Wordpress, the popular blogging engine. CVE-2015-2213 SQL Injection allowed a remote attacker to compromise the site. CVE-2015-5622 The robustness of the shortcodes HTML tags filter has been improved. The parsing is a bit more strict, which may affect your installation. This is the corrected version of the patch that needed to be reverted in DSA 3328-2. CVE-2015-5731 An attacker could lock a post that was being edited. CVE-2015-5732 Cross site scripting in a widget title allows an attacker to steal sensitive information. CVE-2015-5734 Fix some broken links in the legacy theme preview. The issues were discovered by Marc-Alexandre Montpas of Sucuri, Helen Hou-Sand&iacute; of the WordPress security team, Netanel Rubin of Check Point, Ivan Grigorov, Johannes Schmitt of Scrutinizer and Mohamed A. Baset. We recommend that you upgrade your wordpress packages. NOTE: Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the DLA security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.
    last seen2020-03-17
    modified2015-08-20
    plugin id85546
    published2015-08-20
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2015-2020 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/85546
    titleDebian DLA-294-1 : wordpress security update
  • NASL familyDebian Local Security Checks
    NASL idDEBIAN_DSA-3383.NASL
    descriptionSeveral vulnerabilities were discovered in Wordpress, a web blogging tool. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project identifies the following problems : - CVE-2015-2213 SQL Injection allowed a remote attacker to compromise the site. - CVE-2015-5622 The robustness of the shortcodes HTML tags filter has been improved. The parsing is a bit more strict, which may affect your installation. - CVE-2015-5714 A cross-site scripting vulnerability when processing shortcode tags. - CVE-2015-5715 A vulnerability has been discovered, allowing users without proper permissions to publish private posts and make them sticky. - CVE-2015-5731 An attacker could lock a post that was being edited. - CVE-2015-5732 Cross-site scripting in a widget title allows an attacker to steal sensitive information. - CVE-2015-5734 Fix some broken links in the legacy theme preview. - CVE-2015-7989 A cross-site scripting vulnerability in user list tables.
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id86666
    published2015-10-30
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2015-2018 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/86666
    titleDebian DSA-3383-1 : wordpress - security update
  • NASL familyDebian Local Security Checks
    NASL idDEBIAN_DSA-3332.NASL
    descriptionSeveral vulnerabilities have been fixed in Wordpress, the popular blogging engine. - CVE-2015-2213 SQL Injection allowed a remote attacker to compromise the site. - CVE-2015-5622 The robustness of the shortcodes HTML tags filter has been improved. The parsing is a bit more strict, which may affect your installation. This is the corrected version of the patch that needed to be reverted in DSA 3328-2. - CVE-2015-5730 A potential timing side-channel attack in widgets. - CVE-2015-5731 An attacker could lock a post that was being edited. - CVE-2015-5732 Cross site scripting in a widget title allows an attacker to steal sensitive information. - CVE-2015-5734 Fix some broken links in the legacy theme preview. The issues were discovered by Marc-Alexandre Montpas of Sucuri, Helen Hou-Sandi of the WordPress security team, Netanel Rubin of Check Point, Ivan Grigorov, Johannes Schmitt of Scrutinizer and Mohamed A. Baset.
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id85355
    published2015-08-13
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2015-2018 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/85355
    titleDebian DSA-3332-1 : wordpress - security update
  • NASL familyFedora Local Security Checks
    NASL idFEDORA_2015-12235.NASL
    description**WordPress 4.2.4 Security and Maintenance Release** WordPress 4.2.4 is now available. This is a security release for all previous versions and we strongly encourage you to update your sites immediately. This release addresses six issues, including three cross-site scripting vulnerabilities and a potential SQL injection that could be used to compromise a site, which were discovered by Marc-Alexandre Montpas of Sucuri, Helen Hou-Sandi of the WordPress security team, Netanel Rubin of Check Point, and Ivan Grigorov. It also includes a fix for a potential timing side-channel attack, discovered by Johannes Schmitt of Scrutinizer, and prevents an attacker from locking a post from being edited, discovered by Mohamed A. Baset. Our thanks to those who have practiced responsible disclosure of security issues. WordPress 4.2.4 also fixes four bugs. For more information, see: the release notes or consult the list of changes. - the release notes: https://codex.wordpress.org/Version_4.2.4 - the list of changes: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/log/branches/4.2?rev=3 3573&stop_rev=33396 **WordPress 4.2.3 Security and Maintenance Release** WordPress 4.2.3 is now available. This is a security release for all previous versions and we strongly encourage you to update your sites immediately. WordPress versions 4.2.2 and earlier are affected by a cross-site scripting vulnerability, which could allow users with the Contributor or Author role to compromise a site. This was initially reported by Jon Cave and fixed by Robert Chapin, both of the WordPress security team, and later reported by Jouko Pynnonen. We also fixed an issue where it was possible for a user with Subscriber permissions to create a draft through Quick Draft. Reported by Netanel Rubin from Check Point Software Technologies. Our thanks to those who have practiced responsible disclosure of security issues. WordPress 4.2.3 also contains fixes for 20 bugs from 4.2. For more information, see : - the release notes: https://codex.wordpress.org/Version_4.2.3 - the list of changes: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/log/branches/4.2?rev=3 3382&stop_rev=32430 Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.
    last seen2020-06-05
    modified2015-08-14
    plugin id85390
    published2015-08-14
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2015-2020 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/85390
    titleFedora 22 : wordpress-4.2.4-1.fc22 (2015-12235)
  • NASL familyFreeBSD Local Security Checks
    NASL idFREEBSD_PKG_C80B27A2316511E58A1D14DAE9D210B8.NASL
    descriptionGary Pendergast reports : WordPress versions 4.2.2 and earlier are affected by a cross-site scripting vulnerability, which could allow users with the Contributor or Author role to compromise a site. This was reported by Jon Cave and fixed by Robert Chapin, both of the WordPress security team.
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id84973
    published2015-07-24
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2015-2018 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/84973
    titleFreeBSD : wordpress -- XSS vulnerability (c80b27a2-3165-11e5-8a1d-14dae9d210b8)