CVE-2015-5481

GD bbPress Attachments < 2.3 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

2015-07-08 00:00
Mallory Adams

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2.3
Affected Plugin
GD bbPress Attachments
Affected Version
< 2.3
CVSS
6.1Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2015-5481
View all GD bbPress Attachments vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2015-5481 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the GD bbPress Attachments WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 2.3. 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 2.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2015, reported by Mallory Adams.

Vulnerability Overview

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in forms/panels.php in the GD bbPress Attachments plugin before 2.3 for WordPress allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the tab parameter in the gdbbpress_attachments page to wp-admin/edit.php.

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 GD bbPress Attachments < 2.3 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 GD bbPress Attachments the fix is 2.3: builds < 2.3 are affected, anything from 2.3 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.3, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to GD bbPress Attachments: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: GD bbPress Attachments 2.3 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

Related records

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