Chained Quiz <= 0.9.8 - Cross-Site Scripting

2016-12-21 00:00
Anonymous

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 0.9.9
Affected Plugin
Chained Quiz
Affected Version
<= 0.9.8
CVSS
6.4Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE pending
View all Chained Quiz vulnerabilities

At a glance

This record tracks a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Chained Quiz WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 0.9.8. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 0.9.9; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed December 2016.

Vulnerability Overview

The Chained Quiz plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting in versions up to, and including, 0.9.8 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts that execute in a victim's browser.

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 Chained Quiz <= 0.9.8 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 Chained Quiz the fix is 0.9.9: builds <= 0.9.8 are affected, anything from 0.9.9 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 0.9.9, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Chained Quiz: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Chained Quiz 0.9.9 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/76a4dbcd-b3f3-48e9-8175-c701837ac2ae

Related records

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