Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- JSmol2WP
- Affected Version
<= 1.07- CVSS
- 7.5High
- Weakness type
- CWE-918 · Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
- CVE
CVE-2018-20463
At a glance
CVE-2018-20463 is a high-severity Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in the JSmol2WP WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.07. It carries a CVSS score of 7.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed December 2018.
Vulnerability Overview
An issue was discovered in the JSmol2WP plugin 1.07 for WordPress. There is an arbitrary file read vulnerability via ../ directory traversal in query=php://filter/resource= in the jsmol.php query string. This can also be used for SSRF.
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 confidentiality.
CWE-918: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
Reaching this weakness in JSmol2WP <= 1.07 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Server-side request forgery means the application fetches a URL supplied by the caller, turning the server into a proxy for requests the attacker could not make directly.
The request originates from inside the hosting network, which is how these flaws reach cloud metadata endpoints, internal admin panels and services that trust local traffic. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for JSmol2WP yet, so installs running <= 1.07 stay exposed until the vendor ships one.
Remediation
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to JSmol2WP: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in JSmol2WP
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C