CVE-2012-2401

WordPress Core <= 3.3.1 - Same Origin Policy Bypass

2012-04-20 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 3.3.2
Affected Core: WordPress 3.3
Affected Version: < 3.3.2
CVSS: 6.5Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2012-2401

At a glance

CVE-2012-2401 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the WordPress 3.3 WordPress release line, affecting < 3.3.2. It carries a CVSS score of 6.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 3.3.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2012.

Vulnerability Overview

Plupload before 1.5.4, as used in wp-includes/js/plupload/ in WordPress before 3.3.2 and other products, enables scripting regardless of the domain from which the SWF content was loaded, which allows remote attackers to bypass the Same Origin Policy via crafted content.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user.

CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

Reaching this weakness in WordPress 3.3 < 3.3.2 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site scripting happens when input from a request is written into a page without being escaped for the context it lands in, so the browser parses attacker-supplied text as markup or script.

Injected script runs with the privileges of whoever views the affected page, which is how these flaws turn into administrator session theft, silent account creation or persistent backdoors in page content. For WordPress 3.3 the fix is 3.3.2: builds < 3.3.2 are affected, anything from 3.3.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.3.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to WordPress 3.3: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: updating to 3.3.2 is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2012-2401 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/1ab4dc20-ce50-4ad0-aff4-9fc529d1911f https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2012-2401

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in WordPress 3.3

CVSS Vector

6.5

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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