CVE-2017-18543

Invite Anyone < 1.3.16 - Email Injection

2017-03-22 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 1.3.16
Affected Plugin: Invite Anyone
Affected Version: < 1.3.16
CVSS: 7.5High
Weakness type: CWE-284 · Improper Access Control
CVE: CVE-2017-18543

At a glance

CVE-2017-18543 is a high-severity Improper Access Control vulnerability in the Invite Anyone WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 1.3.16. It carries a CVSS score of 7.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high integrity impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.3.16; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2017.

Vulnerability Overview

The Invite Anyone plugin before 1.3.16 for WordPress has incorrect access control for email-based invitations.

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, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on integrity.

CWE-284: Improper Access Control

Reaching this weakness in Invite Anyone < 1.3.16 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Improper access control means the code decides what a caller may do using something other than their actual permissions, so the decision can be wrong without any check appearing to be missing.

Whoever can shape the request decides the answer, so the protected action runs for callers the code never meant to allow. For Invite Anyone the fix is 1.3.16: builds < 1.3.16 are affected, anything from 1.3.16 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.3.16, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: Invite Anyone 1.3.16 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-18543 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e95ecb22-7946-4830-95a4-f145f0f99d68 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-18543

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in Invite Anyone

CVSS Vector

7.5

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityNone
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityNone

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