CVE-2020-13693

bbPress <= 2.6.4 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation

2020-05-28 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.6.5
Affected Plugin: bbPress
Affected Version: <= 2.6.4
CVSS: 9.8Critical
Weakness type: CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management
CVE: CVE-2020-13693

At a glance

CVE-2020-13693 is a critical-severity Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in the bbPress WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.6.4. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.6.5; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2020, reported by hoangkien1020.

Vulnerability Overview

The bbPress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthenticated privilege escalation in versions up to, and including, 2.6.4. This is due to a logic bug within the signup process. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to grant themselves a role that will provide authorization to delete forum activities, import or export forum users, and create new forum moderators

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, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management

Reaching this weakness in bbPress <= 2.6.4 takes no account at all. Improper privilege management means the code lets an account end up with capabilities its role should not have.

It converts a low-privileged account into an administrative one, which makes every other restriction on the site irrelevant. For bbPress the fix is 2.6.5: builds <= 2.6.4 are affected, anything from 2.6.5 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.6.5, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

This one needs no account at all, which puts it outside what login hardening can reach; WordSec's login security narrows the account-level paths around it, and the firewall is what inspects the request itself. None of that substitutes for the fix: bbPress 2.6.5 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-13693 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/57be90d8-dab7-49c8-bcdf-32e967ee1716 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-13693

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in bbPress

CVSS Vector

9.8

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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