CVE-2014-1888

BuddyPress <= 1.9.1 - Stored Cross-Site Scripting

2014-08-01 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 1.9.2
Affected Plugin: BuddyPress
Affected Version: <= 1.9.1
CVSS: 6.4Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2014-1888

At a glance

CVE-2014-1888 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the BuddyPress WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.9.1. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 1.9.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2014, reported by Pietro Oliva.

Vulnerability Overview

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the BuddyPress plugin before 1.9.2 for WordPress allows remote authenticated users to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the name field to groups/create/step/group-details. NOTE: this can be exploited without authentication by leveraging CVE-2014-1889.

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 interaction from a victim user.

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

Reaching this weakness in BuddyPress <= 1.9.1 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 BuddyPress the fix is 1.9.2: builds <= 1.9.1 are affected, anything from 1.9.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.9.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to BuddyPress: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: BuddyPress 1.9.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-1888 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/c2fe3724-f71c-4548-9410-838c0337f887 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-1888

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in BuddyPress

CVSS Vector

6.4

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

Base

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

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