CVE-2018-7433

iThemes Security <= 6.9.0 - Cross-Site Scripting

2018-03-05 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 6.9.1
Affected Plugin: Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection
Affected Version: <= 6.9.0
CVSS: 7.5High
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2018-7433

View all Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2018-7433 is a high-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Kadence Security WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 6.9.0. It carries a CVSS score of 7.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 6.9.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2018.

Vulnerability Overview

The iThemes Security plugin before 6.9.1 for WordPress does not properly perform data escaping for the logs 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 privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality.

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

Reaching this weakness in Kadence Security <= 6.9.0 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 Kadence Security the fix is 6.9.1: builds <= 6.9.0 are affected, anything from 6.9.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 6.9.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Kadence Security: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Kadence Security 6.9.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-7433 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/9b1dc818-75c6-45b7-9f0f-88275cc6e946 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-7433

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection

CVSS Vector

7.5

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityNone
AvailabilityNone

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