CVE-2008-0206

Captcha! <= 2.5d - Cross-Site Scripting

2007-11-26 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.6
Affected Plugin: Captcha!
Affected Version: <= 2.5d
CVSS: 7.1High
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2008-0206

At a glance

CVE-2008-0206 is a high-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Captcha! WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.5d. It carries a CVSS score of 7.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.6; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed November 2007, reported by Eugene Dokukin.

Vulnerability Overview

Multiple cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in captcha\captcha.php in the Captcha! 2.5d and earlier plugin for WordPress allow remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the (1) captcha_ttffolder, (2) captcha_numchars, (3) captcha_ttfrange, or (4) captcha_secret parameter.

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.

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

Reaching this weakness in Captcha! <= 2.5d 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 Captcha! the fix is 2.6: builds <= 2.5d are affected, anything from 2.6 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.6, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Captcha!: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Captcha! 2.6 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-0206 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/1f9760f8-459d-4dcf-941d-f8f3f1e266ce https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-0206

CVSS Vector

7.1

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionRequired
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityLow

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