WP Forum Server <= 1.7.3 - Authenticated (Admin+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.7.4
- Affected Plugin
- WP Forum Server
- Affected Version
<= 1.7.3- CVSS
- 6.1Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE-2012-6622
At a glance
CVE-2012-6622 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the WP Forum Server WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.7.3. It carries a CVSS score of 6.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.7.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2012, reported by Heine Pedersen.
Vulnerability Overview
The WP Forum Server plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the (1) groupid parameter in an editgroup action or (2) usergroup_id parameter in an edit_usergroup action in versions up to, and including, 1.7.3 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with administrative capabilities to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. This can also be exploited via CSRF by unauthenticated users due to missing nonce validation.
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 WP Forum Server <= 1.7.3 takes an account at Admin level or above. 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 WP Forum Server the fix is 1.7.4: builds <= 1.7.3 are affected, anything from 1.7.4 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.7.4, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
An attacker needs Admin access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: WP Forum Server 1.7.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
Other vulnerabilities in WP Forum Server
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