CVE-2013-5918

Platinum SEO <= 1.3.7 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

2014-08-01 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 1.3.8
Affected Plugin: Platinum SEO
Affected Version: <= 1.3.7
CVSS: 6.1Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2013-5918

At a glance

CVE-2013-5918 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Platinum SEO WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.3.7. It carries a CVSS score of 6.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.3.8; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2014, reported by James Pearson.

Vulnerability Overview

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in platinum_seo_pack.php in the Platinum SEO plugin before 1.3.8 for WordPress allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the s parameter.

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.

CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

Reaching this weakness in Platinum SEO <= 1.3.7 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site scripting happens when input from a request is written into a page without being escaped for the context it lands in, so the browser parses attacker-supplied text as markup or script.

Injected script runs with the privileges of whoever views the affected page, which is how these flaws turn into administrator session theft, silent account creation or persistent backdoors in page content. For Platinum SEO the fix is 1.3.8: builds <= 1.3.7 are affected, anything from 1.3.8 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.3.8, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Platinum SEO: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Platinum SEO 1.3.8 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2013-5918 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/3ed45d70-a528-47ee-84c9-26948dfe91f1 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2013-5918

Related records

Same weakness class

4.4CVE-2024-31089: Platinum SEO <= 2.4.0 Stored Cross-Site ScriptingCVE-2024-31089

CVSS Vector

6.1

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionRequired
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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