Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 3.7.30
- Affected Core
- WordPress 5.2
- Affected Version
3.7 – 5.2.2 · 17 branches- CVSS
- 4.6Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-601 · URL Redirection to Untrusted Site ('Open Redirect')
- CVE
CVE-2019-16220
At a glance
CVE-2019-16220 is a medium-severity URL Redirection to Untrusted Site ('Open Redirect') vulnerability in the WordPress 5.2 WordPress release line, affecting 3.7 – 5.2.2 · 17 branches. It carries a CVSS score of 4.6 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 3.7.30; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2019, reported by Tim Coen.
Vulnerability Overview
In WordPress before 5.2.3, validation and sanitization of a URL in wp_validate_redirect in wp-includes/pluggable.php could lead to an open redirect.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed.
CWE-601: URL Redirection to Untrusted Site ('Open Redirect')
Reaching this weakness in WordPress 5.2 3.7 – 5.2.2 · 17 branches takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. An open redirect is a page that takes a destination from the request and sends the browser there without checking that the destination belongs to the site.
A link that starts on a trusted domain finishes on an attacker's, which is what makes phishing and consent-screen abuse credible to the person clicking it. For WordPress 5.2 the fix is 3.7.30: builds 3.7 – 5.2.2 · 17 branches are affected, anything from 3.7.30 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to one of the following versions, or a newer patched version: 3.7.30, 3.8.30, 3.9.28, 4.0.27, 4.1.27, 4.2.24, 4.3.20, 4.4.19, 4.5.18, 4.6.15, 4.7.14, 4.8.10, 4.9.11, 5.0.6, 5.1.2, 5.2.3
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to WordPress 5.2: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: updating to 3.7.30 is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
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Same weakness class
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