CVE-2023-39999

WordPress Core <= 6.3.1 - Authenticated(Contributor+) Sensitive Information Exposure via Comments on Protected Posts

2023-10-12 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 4.1.39
Affected Core: WordPress 6.3
Affected Version: 4.1.38 – 6.3.1 · 23 branches
CVSS: 4.3Medium
Weakness type: CWE-200 · Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
CVE: CVE-2023-39999

At a glance

CVE-2023-39999 is a medium-severity Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor vulnerability in the WordPress 6.3 WordPress release line, affecting 4.1.38 – 6.3.1 · 23 branches. It carries a CVSS score of 4.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Contributor level or above. The issue is fixed in version 4.1.39; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2023, reported by Rafie Muhammad.

Vulnerability Overview

WordPress Core is vulnerable to Sensitive Information Exposure in versions up to, and including, 6.3.1 via the comments listing. This allows authenticated users, with contributor-level privileges or above, to view comments on protected posts.

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 6.3 4.1.38 – 6.3.1 · 23 branches takes an account at Contributor level or above. 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 6.3 the fix is 4.1.39: builds 4.1.38 – 6.3.1 · 23 branches are affected, anything from 4.1.39 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to one of the following versions, or a newer patched version: 4.1.39, 4.2.36, 4.3.32, 4.4.31, 4.5.30, 4.6.27, 4.7.27, 4.8.23, 4.9.24, 5.0.20, 5.1.17, 5.2.19, 5.3.16, 5.4.14, 5.5.13, 5.6.12, 5.7.10, 5.8.8, 5.9.8, 6.0.6, 6.1.4, 6.2.3, 6.3.2

How does WordSec protect against this?

The fix is the thing that ends this: updating to 4.1.39 is the step that ends it.

Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-39999 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/6bea6a77-79e8-4d3a-bd3e-2bb3d20b6fe9 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-39999

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in WordPress 6.3

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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