CVE-2016-10971

MemberSonic Lite Membership Site Plugin <= 1.2 - Authentication Bypass

2016-06-28 00:00
James Golovich

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.302
Affected Version
<= 1.2
CVSS
9.8Critical
Weakness type
CWE-288 · Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
CVE
CVE-2016-10971
View all MemberSonic Lite Membership Site Plugin vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2016-10971 is a critical-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability in the MemberSonic Lite Membership Site Plugin WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.2. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.302; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2016, reported by James Golovich.

Vulnerability Overview

The MemberSonic Lite plugin before 1.302 for WordPress has incorrect login access control because only knowledge of an e-mail address is required.

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, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-288: Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel

Reaching this weakness in MemberSonic Lite Membership Site Plugin <= 1.2 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Authentication bypass through an alternate path means the application has a second route to a protected action that skips the checks the primary route performs.

The protection on the main path becomes irrelevant, because the attacker simply uses the route that never asks. For MemberSonic Lite Membership Site Plugin the fix is 1.302: builds <= 1.2 are affected, anything from 1.302 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.302, 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: MemberSonic Lite Membership Site Plugin 1.302 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

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