Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- SlickQuiz
- Affected Version
<= 1.3.7.1- CVSS
- 6.1Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE-2019-12517
At a glance
CVE-2019-12517 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the SlickQuiz WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.3.7.1. It carries a CVSS score of 6.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed September 2019, reported by Julien Ahrens.
Vulnerability Overview
An XSS issue was discovered in the slickquiz plugin through 1.3.7.1 for WordPress. The save_quiz_score functionality available via the /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php endpoint allows unauthenticated users to submit quiz solutions/answers, which are stored in the database and later shown in the WordPress backend for all users with at least Subscriber rights. Because the plugin does not properly validate and sanitize this data, a malicious payload in either the name or email field is executed directly within the backend at /wp-admin/admin.php?page=slickquiz across all users with the privileges of at least Subscriber.
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.
CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
Reaching this weakness in SlickQuiz <= 1.3.7.1 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. 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. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for SlickQuiz yet, so installs running <= 1.3.7.1 stay exposed until the vendor ships one.
Remediation
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to SlickQuiz: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in SlickQuiz
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