Simple Security <= 1.1.5 - Authenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.1.6
- Affected Plugin
- Simple Security
- Affected Version
<= 1.1.5- CVSS
- 4.8Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE-2014-9570
At a glance
CVE-2014-9570 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Simple Security WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.1.5. It carries a CVSS score of 4.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account. The issue is fixed in version 1.1.6; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2015.
Vulnerability Overview
The Simple Security plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'datefilter' parameter found on the access_log page to wp-admin/users.php and the 'simple_security_ip_blacklist[]' parameter found in the add_blacklist_ip action on the ip_blacklist page to wp-admin/users.php in versions up to, and including, 1.1.5 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed.
CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
Simple Security <= 1.1.5 carries this weakness at datefilter, and reaching it 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 Security the fix is 1.1.6: builds <= 1.1.5 are affected, anything from 1.1.6 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.1.6, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Simple Security: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Simple Security 1.1.6 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C