CVE-2017-6819

WordPress Core < 4.7.3 - Cross-Site Request Forgery via Press This

2017-03-06 00:00
Sipke Mellema

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.7.19
Affected Core
WordPress 4.7
Affected Version
3.7 – 4.7.2 · 12 branches
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE
CVE-2017-6819
View all WordPress 4.7 vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2017-6819 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the WordPress 4.7 WordPress release line, affecting 3.7 – 4.7.2 · 12 branches. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 3.7.19; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2017, reported by Sipke Mellema.

Vulnerability Overview

In WordPress before 4.7.3, there is cross-site request forgery (CSRF) in Press This (wp-admin/includes/class-wp-press-this.php), leading to excessive use of server resources. The CSRF can trigger an outbound HTTP request for a large file that is then parsed by Press This.

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

CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Reaching this weakness in WordPress 4.7 3.7 – 4.7.2 · 12 branches takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site request forgery abuses the fact that browsers attach a victim's cookies to any request, so a state-changing action that only checks who you are, not whether you meant to act, can be triggered from another site.

An attacker who gets a logged-in user to load a crafted page can perform that action as them, with the impact scaling to whatever the victim's role is allowed to do. For WordPress 4.7 the fix is 3.7.19: builds 3.7 – 4.7.2 · 12 branches are affected, anything from 3.7.19 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to one of the following versions, or a newer patched version: 3.7.19, 3.8.19, 3.9.17, 4.0.16, 4.1.16, 4.2.13, 4.3.9, 4.4.8, 4.5.7, 4.6.4, 4.7.3

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to WordPress 4.7: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: updating to 3.7.19 is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

Related records

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