CVE-2013-4340

WordPress Core < 3.6.1 - Spoof Post Authorship

2013-09-11 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 3.6.1
Affected Core: WordPress 3.6
Affected Version: <= 3.6
CVSS: 6.3Medium
Weakness type: CWE-285 · Improper Authorization
CVE: CVE-2013-4340

At a glance

CVE-2013-4340 is a medium-severity Improper Authorization vulnerability in the WordPress 3.6 WordPress release line, affecting <= 3.6. It carries a CVSS score of 6.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 3.6.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2013, reported by Anakorn Kyavatanakij.

Vulnerability Overview

wp-admin/includes/post.php in WordPress before 3.6.1 allows remote authenticated users to spoof the authorship of a post by leveraging the Author role and providing a modified user_ID parameter.

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 3.6 <= 3.6 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 3.6 the fix is 3.6.1: builds <= 3.6 are affected, anything from 3.6.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.6.1, 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 3.6.1 is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2013-4340 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/af420213-039b-41a4-b177-4035fc727867 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2013-4340

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in WordPress 3.6

CVSS Vector

6.3

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityLow

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