CVE-2020-36669

JetBackup – WP Backup, Migrate & Restore <= 1.3.9 - Cross-Site Request Forgery to Arbitrary File Upload

2020-07-16 00:00
Chloe Chamberland

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.4.0
Affected Version
<= 1.3.9
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE
CVE-2020-36669
View all JetBackup – Backup, Restore & Migrate vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2020-36669 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the JetBackup WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.3.9. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.4.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2020, reported by Chloe Chamberland.

Vulnerability Overview

The JetBackup – WP Backup, Migrate & Restore plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including 1.3.9. This is due to missing nonce validation on the backup_guard_get_import_backup() function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to upload arbitrary files to the vulnerable site's server via a forged request, granted they can trick a site's administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

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 privileges on the target site. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

JetBackup <= 1.3.9 carries this weakness at backup_guard_get_import_backup(), and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site request forgery abuses the fact that browsers attach a victim's cookies to any request, so a state-changing action that only checks who you are, not whether you meant to act, can be triggered from another site.

An attacker who gets a logged-in user to load a crafted page can perform that action as them, with the impact scaling to whatever the victim's role is allowed to do. For JetBackup the fix is 1.4.0: builds <= 1.3.9 are affected, anything from 1.4.0 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.4.0, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to JetBackup: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: JetBackup 1.4.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

Related records

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