CVE-2014-9174

MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) <= 5.1.2 - Cross-Site Scripting

2014-11-26 00:00
SecuBeastTeam

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 5.1.3
Affected Plugin
MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy)
Affected Version
<= 5.1.2
CVSS
3.5Low
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2014-9174
View all MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2014-9174 is a low-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the MonsterInsights WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 5.1.2. It carries a CVSS score of 3.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 5.1.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed November 2014, reported by SecuBeastTeam.

Vulnerability Overview

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Google Analytics by Yoast (google-analytics-for-wordpress) plugin before 5.1.3 for WordPress allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the "Manually enter your UA code" (manual_ua_code_field) field in the General Settings.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed.

CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

Reaching this weakness in MonsterInsights <= 5.1.2 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 MonsterInsights the fix is 5.1.3: builds <= 5.1.2 are affected, anything from 5.1.3 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 5.1.3, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to MonsterInsights: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: MonsterInsights 5.1.3 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-9174https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/5178f7ee-d7e3-4cd1-8cc2-121d217e66fahttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-9174

Related records

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