Student Result or Employee Database <= 1.6.3 - Authentication Bypass
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.6.4
- Affected Plugin
- Student Result or Employee Database
- Affected Version
<= 1.6.3- CVSS
- 9.8Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-288 · Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
- CVE
CVE-2017-14766
At a glance
CVE-2017-14766 is a critical-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability in the Student Result or Employee Database WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.6.3. 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 1.6.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2017, reported by Benjamin Lim.
Vulnerability Overview
The Simple Student Result plugin before 1.6.4 for WordPress has an Authentication Bypass vulnerability because the fn_ssr_add_st_submit() function and fn_ssr_del_st_submit() function in functions.php only require knowing the student id number.
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
Student Result or Employee Database <= 1.6.3 carries this weakness at fn_ssr_add_st_submit(), and reaching it 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 Student Result or Employee Database the fix is 1.6.4: builds <= 1.6.3 are affected, anything from 1.6.4 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.6.4, 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: Student Result or Employee Database 1.6.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Student Result or Employee Database
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