CVE-2017-5487

WordPress Core < 4.7.1 - Information Disclosure

2017-01-11 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 3.7.17
Affected Core: WordPress 4.7
Affected Version: 3.7 – 4.7 · 12 branches
CVSS: 4.3Medium
Weakness type: CWE-200 · Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
CVE: CVE-2017-5487

At a glance

CVE-2017-5487 is a medium-severity Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor vulnerability in the WordPress 4.7 WordPress release line, affecting 3.7 – 4.7 · 12 branches. It carries a CVSS score of 4.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 3.7.17; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2017, reported by Krogsgard.

Vulnerability Overview

wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-users-controller.php in the REST API implementation in WordPress 4.7 before 4.7.1 does not properly restrict listings of post authors, which allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information via a wp-json/wp/v2/users request.

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-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

Reaching this weakness in WordPress 4.7 3.7 – 4.7 · 12 branches takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Sensitive information exposure means data the application intended to keep internal is returned to a caller who should not be able to see it.

The disclosed data — credentials, tokens, customer records or internal paths — is usually worth more as material for a follow-up attack than as an end in itself. For WordPress 4.7 the fix is 3.7.17: builds 3.7 – 4.7 · 12 branches are affected, anything from 3.7.17 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to one of the following versions, or a newer patched version: 3.7.17, 3.8.17, 3.9.15, 4.0.14, 4.1.14, 4.2.11, 4.3.7, 4.4.6, 4.5.5, 4.6.2, 4.7.1

How does WordSec protect against this?

The fix is the thing that ends this: updating to 3.7.17 is the step that ends it.

Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-5487 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/2b300f55-f1ee-4345-adc2-32cd3b081a30 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-5487

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in WordPress 4.7

CVSS Vector

4.3

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityNone
AvailabilityNone

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