Vulnerabilities > CVE-2016-10148 - Improper Access Control vulnerability in Wordpress
Attack vector
NETWORK Attack complexity
LOW Privileges required
LOW Confidentiality impact
LOW Integrity impact
NONE Availability impact
NONE Summary
The wp_ajax_update_plugin function in wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php in WordPress before 4.6 makes a get_plugin_data call before checking the update_plugins capability, which allows remote authenticated users to bypass intended read-access restrictions via the plugin parameter to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php, a related issue to CVE-2016-6896.
Vulnerable Configurations
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
- 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.
- Signature Spoofing by Key Theft An attacker obtains an authoritative or reputable signer's private signature key by theft and then uses this key to forge signatures from the original signer to mislead a victim into performing actions that benefit the attacker.
Nessus
| NASL family | CGI abuses |
| NASL id | WORDPRESS_4_6.NASL |
| description | According to its self-reported version number, the WordPress application running on the remote web server is prior to 4.6. It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities : - A path traversal vulnerability exists in the WordPress Admin API in the wp_ajax_update_plugin() function in ajax-actions.php due to improper sanitization of user-supplied input. An authenticated, remote attacker can exploit this, via a specially crafted request, to cause a denial of service condition. (CVE-2016-6896) - A cross-site request forgery vulnerability (XSRF) exists in the admin-ajax.php script due to a failure to require multiple steps, explicit confirmation, or a unique token when performing certain sensitive actions. An unauthenticated, remote attacker can exploit this, by convincing a user to follow a specially crafted link, to perform arbitrary AJAX updates. (CVE-2016-6897) - An information disclosure vulnerability exists in the wp_ajax_update_plugin() function in the ajax-actions.php script due to performing a call to get_plug_data() before checking capabilities. An authenticated, remote attacker can exploit this to bypass intended read-access restrictions, resulting in a disclosure of sensitive information. (CVE-2016-10148) Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application |
| last seen | 2020-06-01 |
| modified | 2020-06-02 |
| plugin id | 93111 |
| published | 2016-08-25 |
| reporter | This script is Copyright (C) 2016-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. |
| source | https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/93111 |
| title | WordPress < 4.6 Multiple Vulnerabilities |
| code | |
References
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/08/20/1
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/08/20/1
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/96847
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/96847
- https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/38168
- https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/38168
- https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37490
- https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37490
- https://sumofpwn.nl/advisory/2016/path_traversal_vulnerability_in_wordpress_core_ajax_handlers.html
- https://sumofpwn.nl/advisory/2016/path_traversal_vulnerability_in_wordpress_core_ajax_handlers.html