CVE-2018-5212

Simple Download Monitor < 3.5.4 - Authenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting

2018-01-02 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 3.5.4
Affected Plugin: Simple Download Monitor
Affected Version: < 3.5.4
CVSS: 6.4Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2018-5212

View all Simple Download Monitor vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2018-5212 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Simple Download Monitor WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 3.5.4. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account. The issue is fixed in version 3.5.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2018, reported by d4wner.

Vulnerability Overview

The Simple Download Monitor plugin before 3.5.4 for WordPress has XSS via the sdm_upload_thumbnail (aka File Thumbnail) parameter in an edit action to wp-admin/post.php.

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.

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

Reaching this weakness in Simple Download Monitor < 3.5.4 takes any authenticated account. 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 Simple Download Monitor the fix is 3.5.4: builds < 3.5.4 are affected, anything from 3.5.4 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.5.4, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Simple Download Monitor: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Simple Download Monitor 3.5.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-5212 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/3d0bf4d1-ba07-4204-bb2b-cdee10e6a275 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-5212

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in Simple Download Monitor

CVSS Vector

6.4

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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