All in One SEO <= 2.1.5 - Cross-Site Scripting

2014-05-31 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.1.6
Affected Plugin: All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights)
Affected Version: <= 2.1.5
CVSS: 6.4Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE pending

View all All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) vulnerabilities

At a glance

This record tracks a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the All in One SEO WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.1.5. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 2.1.6; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2014, reported by Marc-Alexandre Montpas.

Vulnerability Overview

The All in One SEO plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting via the SEO settings for posts in versions up to, and including, 2.1.5 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with subscriber level permissions and above to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

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-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

Reaching this weakness in All in One SEO <= 2.1.5 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site scripting happens when input from a request is written into a page without being escaped for the context it lands in, so the browser parses attacker-supplied text as markup or script.

Injected script runs with the privileges of whoever views the affected page, which is how these flaws turn into administrator session theft, silent account creation or persistent backdoors in page content. For All in One SEO the fix is 2.1.6: builds <= 2.1.5 are affected, anything from 2.1.6 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.1.6, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to All in One SEO: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: All in One SEO 2.1.6 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/60e4c186-5239-464d-be83-1b873f821b3e

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights)

CVSS Vector

6.4

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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