Display Widgets < 2.7 - SEO Spam Injection (Hidden Functionality)
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.7
- Affected Plugin
- Display Widgets
- Affected Version
< 2.7- CVSS
- 9.8Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-506 · Embedded Malicious Code
- CVE
CVE pending
At a glance
This record tracks a critical-severity Embedded Malicious Code vulnerability in the Display Widgets WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 2.7. 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 2.7; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2017.
Vulnerability Overview
The Display Widgets plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to a developer-created backdoor that injected SEOspam into sites in versions up to, and including, 2.6.3.1. Any added content is hidden from logged-in users.
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-506: Embedded Malicious Code
Reaching this weakness in Display Widgets < 2.7 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Embedded malicious code means functionality was deliberately placed in the software to act against the site owner's interest, rather than being an accidental defect.
Removing the software is not enough on its own — anything it created or modified while active has to be audited too. For Display Widgets the fix is 2.7: builds < 2.7 are affected, anything from 2.7 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.7, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Display Widgets 2.7 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
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- Alerts
External References
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