CVE-2007-1893

WordPress Core < 2.1.3 - Authorization Bypass

2007-04-03 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.1.3
Affected Core: WordPress 2.1
Affected Version: <= 2.1.2
CVSS: 4.3Medium
Weakness type: CWE-285 · Improper Authorization
CVE: CVE-2007-1893

At a glance

CVE-2007-1893 is a medium-severity Improper Authorization vulnerability in the WordPress 2.1 WordPress release line, affecting <= 2.1.2. It carries a CVSS score of 4.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 2.1.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2007.

Vulnerability Overview

xmlrpc (xmlrpc.php) in WordPress 2.1.2, and probably earlier, allows remote authenticated users with the contributor role to bypass intended access restrictions and invoke the publish_posts functionality, which can be used to "publish a previously saved post."

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 interaction from a victim user.

CWE-285: Improper Authorization

Reaching this weakness in WordPress 2.1 <= 2.1.2 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Improper authorization means a permission check exists but does not cover the case being exercised, so a caller who is allowed to do one thing is allowed to do a neighbouring thing as well.

A lower-privileged account performs an action reserved for a higher one, which on a multi-author or membership site means an ordinary user reaching administrative behaviour. For WordPress 2.1 the fix is 2.1.3: builds <= 2.1.2 are affected, anything from 2.1.3 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.1.3, 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 2.1.3 is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2007-1893 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/292be50c-6eab-4462-b46c-c7763e8aa223 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2007-1893

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in WordPress 2.1

CVSS Vector

4.3

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityNone
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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