Vulnerabilities > CVE-2018-20152 - Improper Input Validation vulnerability in Wordpress
Attack vector
NETWORK Attack complexity
LOW Privileges required
SINGLE Confidentiality impact
NONE Integrity impact
PARTIAL Availability impact
NONE Summary
In WordPress before 4.9.9 and 5.x before 5.0.1, authors could bypass intended restrictions on post types via crafted input.
Vulnerable Configurations
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.
Nessus
NASL family CGI abuses NASL id WORDPRESS_5_0_1.NASL description According to its self-reported version number, the WordPress application running on the remote web server is prior to 4.9.9, or 5.x prior to 5.0.1. It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities, including cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities due to improper validation of user-supplied input before returning it to users. last seen 2020-04-30 modified 2018-12-13 plugin id 119615 published 2018-12-13 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2018-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/119615 title WordPress < 4.9.9 / 5.x < 5.0.1 Multiple Vulnerabilities code # # (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc. # include("compat.inc"); if (description) { script_id(119615); script_version("1.6"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_modification_date", value:"2020/04/27"); script_cve_id( "CVE-2018-20147", "CVE-2018-20148", "CVE-2018-20149", "CVE-2018-20150", "CVE-2018-20151", "CVE-2018-20152", "CVE-2018-20153" ); script_name(english:"WordPress < 4.9.9 / 5.x < 5.0.1 Multiple Vulnerabilities"); script_summary(english:"Checks the version of WordPress."); script_set_attribute(attribute:"synopsis", value: "A PHP application running on the remote web server is affected by multiple vulnerabilities."); script_set_attribute(attribute:"description", value: "According to its self-reported version number, the WordPress application running on the remote web server is prior to 4.9.9, or 5.x prior to 5.0.1. It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities, including cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities due to improper validation of user-supplied input before returning it to users."); # https://wordpress.org/news/2018/12/wordpress-5-0-1-security-release/ script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"http://www.nessus.org/u?b90fd4fc"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value: "Upgrade to WordPress version 4.9.9 or 5.0.1 or later."); 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:U/RL:OF/RC:C"); script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"); script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"cvss_score_source", value:"CVE-2018-20148"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"No known exploits are available"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2018/12/13"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2018/12/13"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2018/12/13"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"potential_vulnerability", value:"true"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"remote"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/a:wordpress:wordpress"); script_end_attributes(); script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO); script_family(english:"CGI abuses"); script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2018-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof."); script_dependencies("wordpress_detect.nasl"); script_require_keys("www/PHP", "installed_sw/WordPress", "Settings/ParanoidReport"); script_require_ports("Services/www", 80, 443); exit(0); } include("vcf.inc"); include("http.inc"); if (report_paranoia < 2) audit(AUDIT_PARANOID); app = "WordPress"; port = get_http_port(default:80, php:TRUE); app_info = vcf::get_app_info(app:app, port:port, webapp:TRUE); vcf::check_granularity(app_info:app_info, sig_segments:2); # Per https://wordpress.org/download/release-archive/ # only 5.x is currently supported : # "None of these are safe to use, except the latest in the 5.0 series, which is actively maintained." constraints = [ { "fixed_version":"3.7.28", "fixed_display" : "3.7.28 / 5.0.1" }, { "min_version":"3.8", "fixed_version":"3.8.28", "fixed_display" : "3.8.28 / 5.0.1" }, { "min_version":"3.9", "fixed_version":"3.9.26", "fixed_display" : "3.9.26 / 5.0.1" }, { "min_version":"4.0", "fixed_version":"4.0.25", "fixed_display" : "4.0.25 / 5.0.1" }, { "min_version":"4.1", "fixed_version":"4.1.25", "fixed_display" : "4.1.25 / 5.0.1" }, { "min_version":"4.2", "fixed_version":"4.2.22", "fixed_display" : "4.2.22 / 5.0.1" }, { "min_version":"4.3", "fixed_version":"4.3.18", "fixed_display" : "4.3.18 / 5.0.1" }, { "min_version":"4.4", "fixed_version":"4.4.17", "fixed_display" : "4.4.17 / 5.0.1" }, { "min_version":"4.5", "fixed_version":"4.5.16", "fixed_display" : "4.5.16 / 5.0.1" }, { "min_version":"4.6", "fixed_version":"4.6.13", "fixed_display" : "4.6.13 / 5.0.1" }, { "min_version":"4.7", "fixed_version":"4.7.12", "fixed_display" : "4.7.12 / 5.0.1" }, { "min_version":"4.8", "fixed_version":"4.8.8", "fixed_display" : "4.8.8 / 5.0.1" }, { "min_version":"4.9", "fixed_version":"4.9.9", "fixed_display" : "4.9.9 / 5.0.1" }, { "min_version":"5.0", "fixed_version":"5.0.1", "fixed_display" : "5.0.1" } ]; vcf::check_version_and_report( app_info:app_info, constraints:constraints, severity:SECURITY_HOLE, flags:{xss:TRUE} );NASL family Debian Local Security Checks NASL id DEBIAN_DSA-4401.NASL description Several vulnerabilities were discovered in Wordpress, a web blogging tool. They allowed remote attackers to perform various Cross-Side Scripting (XSS) and PHP injections attacks, delete files, leak potentially sensitive data, create posts of unauthorized types, or cause denial-of-service by application crash. last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 122551 published 2019-03-04 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/122551 title Debian DSA-4401-1 : wordpress - security update code # # (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc. # # The descriptive text and package checks in this plugin were # extracted from Debian Security Advisory DSA-4401. The text # itself is copyright (C) Software in the Public Interest, Inc. # include("compat.inc"); if (description) { script_id(122551); script_version("1.4"); script_cvs_date("Date: 2019/04/10 16:10:16"); script_cve_id("CVE-2018-20147", "CVE-2018-20148", "CVE-2018-20149", "CVE-2018-20150", "CVE-2018-20151", "CVE-2018-20152", "CVE-2018-20153", "CVE-2019-8942"); script_xref(name:"DSA", value:"4401"); script_name(english:"Debian DSA-4401-1 : wordpress - security update"); script_summary(english:"Checks dpkg output for the updated package"); script_set_attribute( attribute:"synopsis", value:"The remote Debian host is missing a security-related update." ); script_set_attribute( attribute:"description", value: "Several vulnerabilities were discovered in Wordpress, a web blogging tool. They allowed remote attackers to perform various Cross-Side Scripting (XSS) and PHP injections attacks, delete files, leak potentially sensitive data, create posts of unauthorized types, or cause denial-of-service by application crash." ); script_set_attribute( attribute:"see_also", value:"https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=916403" ); script_set_attribute( attribute:"see_also", value:"https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/source-package/wordpress" ); script_set_attribute( attribute:"see_also", value:"https://packages.debian.org/source/stretch/wordpress" ); script_set_attribute( attribute:"see_also", value:"https://www.debian.org/security/2019/dsa-4401" ); script_set_attribute( attribute:"solution", value: "Upgrade the wordpress packages. For the stable distribution (stretch), these problems have been fixed in version 4.7.5+dfsg-2+deb9u5." ); 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:F/RL:OF/RC:C"); script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"); script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:F/RL:O/RC:C"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"Exploits are available"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploit_available", value:"true"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"metasploit_name", value:'WordPress Crop-image Shell Upload'); script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploit_framework_metasploit", value:"true"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:wordpress"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:9.0"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2018/12/14"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2019/03/01"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2019/03/04"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"generated_plugin", value:"current"); script_end_attributes(); script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO); script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof."); script_family(english:"Debian Local Security Checks"); script_dependencies("ssh_get_info.nasl"); script_require_keys("Host/local_checks_enabled", "Host/Debian/release", "Host/Debian/dpkg-l"); exit(0); } include("audit.inc"); include("debian_package.inc"); if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED); if (!get_kb_item("Host/Debian/release")) audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "Debian"); if (!get_kb_item("Host/Debian/dpkg-l")) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING); flag = 0; if (deb_check(release:"9.0", prefix:"wordpress", reference:"4.7.5+dfsg-2+deb9u5")) flag++; if (deb_check(release:"9.0", prefix:"wordpress-l10n", reference:"4.7.5+dfsg-2+deb9u5")) flag++; if (deb_check(release:"9.0", prefix:"wordpress-theme-twentyfifteen", reference:"4.7.5+dfsg-2+deb9u5")) flag++; if (deb_check(release:"9.0", prefix:"wordpress-theme-twentyseventeen", reference:"4.7.5+dfsg-2+deb9u5")) flag++; if (deb_check(release:"9.0", prefix:"wordpress-theme-twentysixteen", reference:"4.7.5+dfsg-2+deb9u5")) flag++; if (flag) { if (report_verbosity > 0) security_hole(port:0, extra:deb_report_get()); else security_hole(0); exit(0); } else audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, "affected");NASL family Debian Local Security Checks NASL id DEBIAN_DLA-1673.NASL description CVE-2018-20147 Authors could modify metadata to bypass intended restrictions on deleting files. CVE-2018-20148 Contributors could conduct PHP object injection attacks via crafted metadata in a wp.getMediaItem XMLRPC call. This is caused by mishandling of serialized data at phar:// URLs in the wp_get_attachment_thumb_file function in wp-includes/post.php. CVE-2018-20149 When the Apache HTTP Server is used, authors could upload crafted files that bypass intended MIME type restrictions, leading to XSS, as demonstrated by a .jpg file without JPEG data. CVE-2018-20150 Crafted URLs could trigger XSS for certain use cases involving plugins. CVE-2018-20151 The user-activation page could be read by a search engine last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 122100 published 2019-02-12 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2019-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/122100 title Debian DLA-1673-1 : wordpress security update code # # (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc. # # The descriptive text and package checks in this plugin were # extracted from Debian Security Advisory DLA-1673-1. The text # itself is copyright (C) Software in the Public Interest, Inc. # include("compat.inc"); if (description) { script_id(122100); script_version("1.2"); script_cvs_date("Date: 2020/02/13"); script_cve_id("CVE-2018-20147", "CVE-2018-20148", "CVE-2018-20149", "CVE-2018-20150", "CVE-2018-20151", "CVE-2018-20152", "CVE-2018-20153"); script_name(english:"Debian DLA-1673-1 : wordpress security update"); script_summary(english:"Checks dpkg output for the updated packages."); script_set_attribute( attribute:"synopsis", value:"The remote Debian host is missing a security update." ); script_set_attribute( attribute:"description", value: "CVE-2018-20147 Authors could modify metadata to bypass intended restrictions on deleting files. CVE-2018-20148 Contributors could conduct PHP object injection attacks via crafted metadata in a wp.getMediaItem XMLRPC call. This is caused by mishandling of serialized data at phar:// URLs in the wp_get_attachment_thumb_file function in wp-includes/post.php. CVE-2018-20149 When the Apache HTTP Server is used, authors could upload crafted files that bypass intended MIME type restrictions, leading to XSS, as demonstrated by a .jpg file without JPEG data. CVE-2018-20150 Crafted URLs could trigger XSS for certain use cases involving plugins. CVE-2018-20151 The user-activation page could be read by a search engine's web crawler if an unusual configuration were chosen. The search engine could then index and display a user's e-mail address and (rarely) the password that was generated by default. CVE-2018-20152 Authors could bypass intended restrictions on post types via crafted input. CVE-2018-20153 Contributors could modify new comments made by users with greater privileges, possibly causing XSS. For Debian 8 'Jessie', these problems have been fixed in version 4.1.25+dfsg-1+deb8u1. 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." ); script_set_attribute( attribute:"see_also", value:"https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/02/msg00019.html" ); script_set_attribute( attribute:"see_also", value:"https://packages.debian.org/source/jessie/wordpress" ); script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value:"Upgrade the affected packages."); 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:U/RL:OF/RC:C"); script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"); script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"No known exploits are available"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:wordpress"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:wordpress-l10n"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:wordpress-theme-twentyfifteen"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:wordpress-theme-twentyfourteen"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:wordpress-theme-twentythirteen"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:8.0"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2018/12/14"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2019/02/11"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2019/02/12"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"generated_plugin", value:"current"); script_end_attributes(); script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO); script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2019-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof."); script_family(english:"Debian Local Security Checks"); script_dependencies("ssh_get_info.nasl"); script_require_keys("Host/local_checks_enabled", "Host/Debian/release", "Host/Debian/dpkg-l"); exit(0); } include("audit.inc"); include("debian_package.inc"); if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED); if (!get_kb_item("Host/Debian/release")) audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "Debian"); if (!get_kb_item("Host/Debian/dpkg-l")) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING); flag = 0; if (deb_check(release:"8.0", prefix:"wordpress", reference:"4.1.25+dfsg-1+deb8u1")) flag++; if (deb_check(release:"8.0", prefix:"wordpress-l10n", reference:"4.1.25+dfsg-1+deb8u1")) flag++; if (deb_check(release:"8.0", prefix:"wordpress-theme-twentyfifteen", reference:"4.1.25+dfsg-1+deb8u1")) flag++; if (deb_check(release:"8.0", prefix:"wordpress-theme-twentyfourteen", reference:"4.1.25+dfsg-1+deb8u1")) flag++; if (deb_check(release:"8.0", prefix:"wordpress-theme-twentythirteen", reference:"4.1.25+dfsg-1+deb8u1")) flag++; if (flag) { if (report_verbosity > 0) security_hole(port:0, extra:deb_report_get()); else security_hole(0); exit(0); } else audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, "affected");
References
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106220
- https://codex.wordpress.org/Version_4.9.9
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/02/msg00019.html
- https://wordpress.org/news/2018/12/wordpress-5-0-1-security-release/
- https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-5-0-1/
- https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/9170
- https://www.debian.org/security/2019/dsa-4401
- https://www.zdnet.com/article/wordpress-plugs-bug-that-led-to-google-indexing-some-user-passwords/