News & Blog Designer Pack – WordPress Blog Plugin <= 3.4.1 - Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution via Local File Inclusion
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 3.4.2
- Affected Plugin
- Blog Designer Pack – Blog, Post Grid, Post Slider, Post Carousel, Category Post, News
- Affected Version
<= 3.4.1- CVSS
- 8.1High
- Weakness type
- CWE-98 · Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion')
- CVE
CVE-2023-5815
At a glance
CVE-2023-5815 is a high-severity Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion') vulnerability in the Blog Designer Pack WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.4.1. It carries a CVSS score of 8.1 (reachable over the network; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 3.4.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2023, reported by Florian Hauser.
Vulnerability Overview
The News & Blog Designer Pack – WordPress Blog Plugin — (Blog Post Grid, Blog Post Slider, Blog Post Carousel, Blog Post Ticker, Blog Post Masonry) plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution via Local File Inclusion in all versions up to, and including, 3.4.1 via the bdp_get_more_post function hooked via a nopriv AJAX. This is due to function utilizing an unsafe extract() method to extract values from the POST variable and passing that input to the include() function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to include arbitrary PHP files and achieve remote code execution. On vulnerable Docker configurations it may be possible for an attacker to create a PHP file and then subsequently include it to achieve RCE.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, 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-98: Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion')
Blog Designer Pack <= 3.4.1 carries this weakness at extract(), and reaching it takes no account at all. PHP file inclusion means a path used by include or require is built from request data, so the file that gets executed is under the caller's influence.
Including an attacker-influenced file executes its contents, which is why this class is routinely chained with an upload or log-poisoning step to reach code execution. For Blog Designer Pack the fix is 3.4.2: builds <= 3.4.1 are affected, anything from 3.4.2 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 3.4.2, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Blog Designer Pack 3.4.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Scanner
- Login Security
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
Other vulnerabilities in Blog Designer Pack – Blog, Post Grid, Post Slider, Post Carousel, Category Post, News
- 6.4CVE-2022-4792: News & Blog Designer Pack Stored Cross-Site SQcripting
CVE-2022-4792 - 6.3CVE-2022-4974: Freemius SDK <= 2.4.2 Missing Authorization Checks
CVE-2022-4974 - 6.1CVE-2024-13362: Freemius <= 2.10.1 Reflected DOM-Based XSS
CVE-2024-13362 - 6.1CVE-2023-33999: Freemius SDK <= 2.5.9 Reflected Cross-Site Scripting
CVE-2023-33999
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