CVE-2018-21014

BuddyBoss Media <= 3.2.3 - Stored Cross-Site Scripting

2018-01-17 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 3.2.4
Affected Plugin: BuddyBoss Media
Affected Version: <= 3.2.3
CVSS: 5.4Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2018-21014

View all BuddyBoss Media vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2018-21014 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the BuddyBoss Media WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.2.3. It carries a CVSS score of 5.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 3.2.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2018, reported by ozzi.

Vulnerability Overview

The BuddyBoss Media plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting via the album description input field in versions up to, and including, 3.2.3 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that execute if they can successfully trick a user 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.

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

Reaching this weakness in BuddyBoss Media <= 3.2.3 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 BuddyBoss Media the fix is 3.2.4: builds <= 3.2.3 are affected, anything from 3.2.4 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.2.4, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to BuddyBoss Media: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: BuddyBoss Media 3.2.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-21014 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e485f089-689f-4f73-bb0d-eca6815388be https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-21014

CVSS Vector

5.4

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

Base

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

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