CVE-2008-4106

WordPress Core < 2.6.2 - Arbitrary User Password Reset

2008-09-08 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.6.2
Affected Core: WordPress 2.6
Affected Version: <= 2.6.1
CVSS: 8.1High
Weakness type: CWE-197 · Numeric Truncation Error
CVE: CVE-2008-4106

At a glance

CVE-2008-4106 is a high-severity Numeric Truncation Error vulnerability in the WordPress 2.6 WordPress release line, affecting <= 2.6.1. It carries a CVSS score of 8.1 (reachable over the network; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.6.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2008, reported by Stefan Esser.

Vulnerability Overview

WordPress before 2.6.2 does not properly handle MySQL warnings about insertion of username strings that exceed the maximum column width of the user_login column, and does not properly handle space characters when comparing usernames, which allows remote attackers to change an arbitrary user's password to a random value by registering a similar username and then requesting a password reset, related to a "SQL column truncation vulnerability." NOTE: the attacker can discover the random password by also exploiting CVE-2008-4107.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, 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-197: Numeric Truncation Error

Truncation errors occur when a primitive is cast to a primitive of a smaller size and data is lost in the conversion.

Remediation

Update to version 2.6.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The fix is the thing that ends this: updating to 2.6.2 is the step that ends it.

Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-4106 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/354a5b89-8845-4486-8cc5-7339a6a107c0 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-4106

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in WordPress 2.6

CVSS Vector

8.1

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

Base

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

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