CVE-2017-18580

WordPress Shortcodes Plugin — Shortcodes Ultimate <= 5.0.0 - Authenticated Remote Code Execution

2017-10-31 00:00
Robert Mathews

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 5.0.1
Affected Plugin
Shortcodes Ultimate – Content Elements
Affected Version
< 5.0.1
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
CVE
CVE-2017-18580
View all Shortcodes Ultimate – Content Elements vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2017-18580 is a high-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the Shortcodes Ultimate WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 5.0.1. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account. The issue is fixed in version 5.0.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2017, reported by Robert Mathews.

Vulnerability Overview

The shortcodes-ultimate plugin before 5.0.1 for WordPress has remote code execution via a filter in a meta, post, or user shortcode.

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 interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')

Reaching this weakness in Shortcodes Ultimate < 5.0.1 takes any authenticated account. Code injection means input from a request reaches a language construct that evaluates code, so the attacker's text is executed rather than treated as data.

The injected code runs with the web server's privileges, giving the attacker the same access to the database and filesystem as WordPress itself. For Shortcodes Ultimate the fix is 5.0.1: builds < 5.0.1 are affected, anything from 5.0.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 5.0.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Shortcodes Ultimate: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Shortcodes Ultimate 5.0.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Scanner
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-18580https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e703d411-d608-43cc-8806-1d1e837cf797https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-18580

Related records

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