CVE-2014-8949

iMember360 3.8.012 - 3.9.001 - Remote Code Execution

2014-04-24 00:00
Everett Griffiths

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.9.002
Affected Plugin
iMember360is
Affected Version
3.8.012 – 3.9.001
CVSS
7.2High
Weakness type
CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
CVE
CVE-2014-8949
View all iMember360is vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2014-8949 is a high-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the iMember360is WordPress plugin, affecting versions 3.8.012 – 3.9.001. It carries a CVSS score of 7.2 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). The issue is fixed in version 3.9.002; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2014, reported by Everett Griffiths.

Vulnerability Overview

The iMember360 plugin 3.8.012 through 3.9.001 for WordPress allows remote authenticated administrators to execute arbitrary commands via shell metacharacters in the i4w_trace parameter. NOTE: this can be leveraged with CVE-2014-8948 to allow remote attackers to execute code. NOTE: it is not clear whether this issue itself crosses privileges.

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 interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')

Reaching this weakness in iMember360is 3.8.012 – 3.9.001 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Code injection means input from a request reaches a language construct that evaluates code, so the attacker's text is executed rather than treated as data.

The injected code runs with the web server's privileges, giving the attacker the same access to the database and filesystem as WordPress itself. For iMember360is the fix is 3.9.002: builds 3.8.012 – 3.9.001 are affected, anything from 3.9.002 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.9.002, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to iMember360is: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. 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: iMember360is 3.9.002 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Scanner
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-8949https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/509097ae-5b20-4e91-9d82-cc6e3b64e518https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-8949

Related records

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