CVE-2020-11028

WordPress Core < 5.4.1 - Private Post Disclosure

2020-04-29 00:00
ka1n4t

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.7.33
Affected Core
WordPress 5.4
Affected Version
3.7 – 5.4 · 19 branches
CVSS
5.8Medium
Weakness type
CWE-284 · Improper Access Control
CVE
CVE-2020-11028
View all WordPress 5.4 vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2020-11028 is a medium-severity Improper Access Control vulnerability in the WordPress 5.4 WordPress release line, affecting 3.7 – 5.4 · 19 branches. It carries a CVSS score of 5.8 (reachable over the network; high confidentiality impact). The issue is fixed in version 3.7.33; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2020, reported by ka1n4t.

Vulnerability Overview

In affected versions of WordPress, some private posts, which were previously public, can result in unauthenticated disclosure under a specific set of conditions. This has been patched in version 5.4.1, along with all the previously affected versions via a minor release (5.3.3, 5.2.6, 5.1.5, 5.0.9, 4.9.14, 4.8.13, 4.7.17, 4.6.18, 4.5.21, 4.4.22, 4.3.23, 4.2.27, 4.1.30, 4.0.30, 3.9.31, 3.8.33, 3.7.33).

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality.

CWE-284: Improper Access Control

Reaching this weakness in WordPress 5.4 3.7 – 5.4 · 19 branches takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Improper access control means the code decides what a caller may do using something other than their actual permissions, so the decision can be wrong without any check appearing to be missing.

Whoever can shape the request decides the answer, so the protected action runs for callers the code never meant to allow. For WordPress 5.4 the fix is 3.7.33: builds 3.7 – 5.4 · 19 branches are affected, anything from 3.7.33 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to one of the following versions, or a newer patched version: 3.7.33, 3.8.33, 3.9.31, 4.0.30, 4.1.30, 4.2.27, 4.3.23, 4.4.22, 4.5.21, 4.6.18, 4.7.17, 4.8.13, 4.9.14, 5.0.9, 5.1.5, 5.2.6, 5.3.3, 5.4.1

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 3.7.33 is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-11028https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b6b6fb24-f70b-44b0-a1e8-12ebc0e0c105https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-11028

Related records

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