BuddyPress <= 5.1.0 - Denial of Service

2019-12-23 00:00
nomnom

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 5.1.1
Affected Plugin
BuddyPress
Affected Version
<= 5.1.0
CVSS
5.4Medium
Weakness type
CWE-400 · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
CVE
CVE pending
View all BuddyPress vulnerabilities

At a glance

This record tracks a medium-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in the BuddyPress WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 5.1.0. It carries a CVSS score of 5.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 5.1.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed December 2019, reported by nomnom.

Vulnerability Overview

The BuddyPress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Denial of Service in versions up to, and including, 5.1.0. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers to remove another user’s avatar and/or remove any empty folder.

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-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Reaching this weakness in BuddyPress <= 5.1.0 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Uncontrolled resource consumption means a request can make the server do an amount of work it never bounds, because the size or repetition of the job is taken from the request rather than capped by the code.

A single caller can hold PHP workers, database connections or disk open long enough to slow the site for everyone, without needing any account or any other flaw. For BuddyPress the fix is 5.1.1: builds <= 5.1.0 are affected, anything from 5.1.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 5.1.1, 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 5.1.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

Related records

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