CVE-2021-25114

Paid Memberships Pro <= 2.6.6 - Unauthenticated SQL Injection

2022-01-07 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.6.7
Affected Plugin: Paid Memberships Pro – Content Restriction, User Registration, & Paid Subscriptions
Affected Version: < 2.6.7
CVSS: 9.8Critical
Weakness type: CWE-89 · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')
CVE: CVE-2021-25114

View all Paid Memberships Pro – Content Restriction, User Registration, & Paid Subscriptions vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-25114 is a critical-severity Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') vulnerability in the Paid Memberships Pro WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 2.6.7. 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 2.6.7; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2022, reported by Krzysztof Zając.

Vulnerability Overview

The Paid Memberships Pro WordPress plugin before 2.6.7 does not escape the discount_code in one of its REST route (available to unauthenticated users) before using it in a SQL statement, leading to a SQL injection

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-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')

Reaching this weakness in Paid Memberships Pro < 2.6.7 takes no account at all. 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 Paid Memberships Pro the fix is 2.6.7: builds < 2.6.7 are affected, anything from 2.6.7 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.6.7, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Paid Memberships Pro 2.6.7 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-25114 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/09679bd2-c416-4037-bfa4-d56ba862113c https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-25114

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Paid Memberships Pro – Content Restriction, User Registration, & Paid Subscriptions

CVSS Vector

9.8

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

Base

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

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