Intuitive Custom Post Order <= 3.1.4.1 - Authenticated (Admin+) SQL Injection
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 3.1.5
- Affected Plugin
- Intuitive Custom Post Order
- Affected Version
<= 3.1.4- CVSS
- 6.6Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-89 · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')
- CVE
CVE-2023-1016
At a glance
CVE-2023-1016 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') vulnerability in the Intuitive Custom Post Order WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.1.4. It carries a CVSS score of 6.6 (reachable over the network; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Admin level or above. The issue is fixed in version 3.1.5; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2023.
Vulnerability Overview
The Intuitive Custom Post Order plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to SQL Injection in versions up to, and including, 3.1.4.1, due to insufficient escaping on the user supplied 'objects' and 'tags' parameters and lack of sufficient preparation in the 'update_options' function as well as the 'refresh' function which runs queries on the same values. This allows authenticated attackers, with administrator permissions, to append additional SQL queries into already existing queries that can be used to extract sensitive information from the database. Note that this attack may only be practical on configurations where it is possible to bypass addslashes due to the database using a nonstandard character set such as GBK.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')
Intuitive Custom Post Order <= 3.1.4 carries this weakness at objects, and reaching it takes an account at Admin level or above. 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 Intuitive Custom Post Order the fix is 3.1.5: builds <= 3.1.4 are affected, anything from 3.1.5 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 3.1.5, 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: Intuitive Custom Post Order 3.1.5 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
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