CVE-2019-20361

Email Subscribers & Newsletters < 4.3.1 - Unauthenticated Blind SQL Injection

2019-11-13 00:00
Matt Barry

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 4.3.1
Affected Plugin
Email Subscribers & Newsletters by Icegram Express – Email Marketing, Post Notifications & WooCommerce Marekting Automation for WordPress
Affected Version
<= 4.3.0
CVSS
8.3High
Weakness type
CWE-89 · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command
CVE
CVE-2019-20361
View all Email Subscribers & Newsletters by Icegram Express – Email Marketing, Post Notifications & WooCommerce Marekting Automation for WordPress vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2019-20361 is a high-severity Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command vulnerability in the Email Subscribers & Newsletters by Icegram Express WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 4.3.0. It carries a CVSS score of 8.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 4.3.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed November 2019, reported by Matt Barry.

Vulnerability Overview

There was a flaw in the WordPress plugin, Email Subscribers & Newsletters before 4.3.1, that allowed SQL statements to be passed to the database in the hash parameter (a blind SQL injection vulnerability).

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.

CWE-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command

Reaching this weakness in Email Subscribers & Newsletters by Icegram Express <= 4.3.0 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 Email Subscribers & Newsletters by Icegram Express the fix is 4.3.1: builds <= 4.3.0 are affected, anything from 4.3.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 4.3.1, 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: Email Subscribers & Newsletters by Icegram Express 4.3.1 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-2019-20361https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/00187815-6706-4ec9-a566-4836de0d17c6https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-20361

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C