CVE-2007-6013

WordPress Core 1.5 - 2.3.1 - Authorization Bypass

2007-12-29 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.3.2
Affected Core: WordPress 2.3
Affected Version: 1.5 – 2.3.1
CVSS: 9.8Critical
Weakness type: CWE-288 · Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
CVE: CVE-2007-6013

At a glance

CVE-2007-6013 is a critical-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability in the WordPress 2.3 WordPress release line, affecting 1.5 – 2.3.1. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.3.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed December 2007.

Vulnerability Overview

Wordpress 1.5 through 2.3.1 uses cookie values based on the MD5 hash of a password MD5 hash, which allows attackers to bypass authentication by obtaining the MD5 hash from the user database, then generating the authentication cookie from that hash.

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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-288: Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel

Reaching this weakness in WordPress 2.3 1.5 – 2.3.1 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Authentication bypass through an alternate path means the application has a second route to a protected action that skips the checks the primary route performs.

The protection on the main path becomes irrelevant, because the attacker simply uses the route that never asks. For WordPress 2.3 the fix is 2.3.2: builds 1.5 – 2.3.1 are affected, anything from 2.3.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.3.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: updating to 2.3.2 is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2007-6013 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e9ec79e5-9f02-4a73-9437-58821ca855ef https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2007-6013

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in WordPress 2.3

CVSS Vector

9.8

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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