CVE-2020-5244

BuddyPress <= 5.1.1 - Sensitive Information Disclosure

2020-01-02 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 5.1.2
Affected Plugin: BuddyPress
Affected Version: <= 5.1.1
CVSS: 7.5High
Weakness type: CWE-200 · Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
CVE: CVE-2020-5244

At a glance

CVE-2020-5244 is a high-severity Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor vulnerability in the BuddyPress WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 5.1.1. 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 5.1.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2020, reported by Petter Walbø Johnsgård.

Vulnerability Overview

In BuddyPress before 5.1.2, requests to a certain REST API endpoint can result in private user data getting exposed. Authentication is not needed. This has been patched in version 5.1.2.

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-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

Reaching this weakness in BuddyPress <= 5.1.1 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Sensitive information exposure means data the application intended to keep internal is returned to a caller who should not be able to see it.

The disclosed data — credentials, tokens, customer records or internal paths — is usually worth more as material for a follow-up attack than as an end in itself. For BuddyPress the fix is 5.1.2: builds <= 5.1.1 are affected, anything from 5.1.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 5.1.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The fix is the thing that ends this: BuddyPress 5.1.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-5244 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/8457c5e1-9c31-4a1a-a221-36647753a877 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-5244

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in BuddyPress

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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