CVE-2018-18069

WPML <= 3.6.3 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting

2018-10-08 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 4.0
Affected Plugin: WPML Multilingual CMS
Affected Version: <= 3.6.3
CVSS: 7.2High
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2018-18069

View all WPML Multilingual CMS vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2018-18069 is a high-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the WPML Multilingual CMS WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.6.3. It carries a CVSS score of 7.2 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 4.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2018.

Vulnerability Overview

process_forms in the WPML (aka sitepress-multilingual-cms) plugin through 3.6.3 for WordPress has XSS via any locale_file_name_ parameter (such as locale_file_name_en) in an unauthenticated theme-localization.php request to wp-admin/admin.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 privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user.

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

Reaching this weakness in WPML Multilingual CMS <= 3.6.3 takes no account at all. 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 WPML Multilingual CMS the fix is 4.0: builds <= 3.6.3 are affected, anything from 4.0 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 4.0, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: WPML Multilingual CMS 4.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-18069 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/bbdca292-89b6-4e62-bc68-4fdcd57fd504 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-18069

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in WPML Multilingual CMS

CVSS Vector

7.2

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

Base

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

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