CVE-2016-1209

Ninja Forms Contact Form 2.9.36 - 2.9.42 - PHP Object Injection

2016-05-13 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.9.42.1
Affected Plugin: Ninja Forms – The Contact Form Builder That Grows With You
Affected Version: 2.9.36 – 2.9.42
CVSS: 8.1High
Weakness type: CWE-20 · Improper Input Validation
CVE: CVE-2016-1209

View all Ninja Forms – The Contact Form Builder That Grows With You vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2016-1209 is a high-severity Improper Input Validation vulnerability in the Ninja Forms WordPress plugin, affecting versions 2.9.36 – 2.9.42. It carries a CVSS score of 8.1 (reachable over the network; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.9.42.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2016.

Vulnerability Overview

The Ninja Forms plugin before 2.9.42.1 for WordPress allows remote attackers to conduct PHP object injection attacks via crafted serialized values in a POST request.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, 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-20: Improper Input Validation

Reaching this weakness in Ninja Forms 2.9.36 – 2.9.42 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Improper input validation means the application accepts input without confirming it has the form, type or range the code downstream assumes.

The concrete impact depends on where the unvalidated value lands, which is why records in this class range from cosmetic bugs to full compromise. For Ninja Forms the fix is 2.9.42.1: builds 2.9.36 – 2.9.42 are affected, anything from 2.9.42.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.9.42.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Ninja Forms: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Ninja Forms 2.9.42.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-1209 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e9f73654-2e5a-4762-8cac-613e24d3216a https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-1209

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Ninja Forms – The Contact Form Builder That Grows With You

CVSS Vector

8.1

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityHigh
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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