CVE-2018-14502

Chained Quiz <= 1.0.8.2 - Unauthenticated SQL Injection

2018-08-16 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 1.0.9
Affected Plugin: Chained Quiz
Affected Version: < 1.0.9
CVSS: 9.8Critical
Weakness type: CWE-89 · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')
CVE: CVE-2018-14502

At a glance

CVE-2018-14502 is a critical-severity Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') vulnerability in the Chained Quiz WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 1.0.9. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.0.9; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2018, reported by Qlirim Emini.

Vulnerability Overview

controllers/quizzes.php in the Kiboko Chained Quiz plugin before 1.0.9 for WordPress allows remote unauthenticated users to execute arbitrary SQL commands via the 'answer' and 'answers' parameters.

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, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')

Chained Quiz < 1.0.9 carries this weakness at answer, and reaching it takes no account at all. SQL injection happens when request data is concatenated into a query instead of being bound as a parameter, letting an attacker change the structure of the statement rather than just its values.

A working injection can read any table the database user can see, which on a WordPress install means user records, password hashes and session or API secrets stored in options. For Chained Quiz the fix is 1.0.9: builds < 1.0.9 are affected, anything from 1.0.9 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.0.9, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Chained Quiz 1.0.9 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-14502 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/c6ef0c41-e498-4de6-a86a-d23f65a7a824 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-14502

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in Chained Quiz

CVSS Vector

9.8

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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