Slideshow Gallery <= 1.5.3.1 - Cross-Site Request Forgery to Arbitrary File Upload

2015-08-20 00:00
Marcin Probola

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.5.3.2
Affected Plugin
Slideshow Gallery LITE
Affected Version
<= 1.5.3.1
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE
CVE pending
View all Slideshow Gallery LITE vulnerabilities

At a glance

This record tracks a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Slideshow Gallery LITE WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.5.3.1. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.5.3.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2015, reported by Marcin Probola.

Vulnerability Overview

The Slideshow Gallery plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 1.5.3.1. This is due to missing nonce validation on the save slideshow functionality. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to upload arbitrary files, including php files, and inject malicious web scripts via a forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Reaching this weakness in Slideshow Gallery LITE <= 1.5.3.1 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site request forgery abuses the fact that browsers attach a victim's cookies to any request, so a state-changing action that only checks who you are, not whether you meant to act, can be triggered from another site.

An attacker who gets a logged-in user to load a crafted page can perform that action as them, with the impact scaling to whatever the victim's role is allowed to do. For Slideshow Gallery LITE the fix is 1.5.3.2: builds <= 1.5.3.1 are affected, anything from 1.5.3.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.5.3.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Slideshow Gallery LITE: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Slideshow Gallery LITE 1.5.3.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/01762804-df33-4c4d-b8f6-d94a1e5b5fc9

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C