Registration Forms – User Profile, Custom Registration Form, Login Form, Invitation-Based Registrations for WordPress 2.0.14 - 2.0.15 - Authentication Bypass

2015-05-04 00:00
James Hooker

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2.0.16
Affected Plugin
Pie Register – User Registration, Profiles & Content Restriction
Affected Version
2.0.14 – 2.0.15
CVSS
9.8Critical
Weakness type
CWE-288 · Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
CVE
CVE pending
View all Pie Register – User Registration, Profiles & Content Restriction vulnerabilities

At a glance

This record tracks a critical-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability in the Pie Register WordPress plugin, affecting versions 2.0.14 – 2.0.15. 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 2.0.16; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2015, reported by James Hooker.

Vulnerability Overview

The Registration Forms – User Profile, Custom Registration Form, Login Form, Invitation-Based Registrations plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authentication bypass in versions 2.0.14 - 2.0.15 . This is due to a lack of validation of user input in a login request to the plugin. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to authenticate as an administrator when supplying a site administrators user id.

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 Pie Register 2.0.14 – 2.0.15 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 Pie Register the fix is 2.0.16: builds 2.0.14 – 2.0.15 are affected, anything from 2.0.16 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.0.16, 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: Pie Register 2.0.16 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/053bb01c-9e87-4836-ae1c-567272b21118

Related records

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