CVE-2014-2274

Subscribe To Comments Reloaded <= 140129 - Cross-Site Request Forgery to Cross-Site Scripting

2014-02-18 00:00
Mallory Adams

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 140219
Affected Version
<= 140129
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2014-2274
View all Subscribe To Comments Reloaded vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2014-2274 is a high-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Subscribe To Comments Reloaded WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 140129. 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 140219; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2014, reported by Mallory Adams.

Vulnerability Overview

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Subscribe To Comments Reloaded plugin before 140219 for WordPress allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators for requests that conduct cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks via a request to the subscribe-to-comments-reloaded/options/index.php page 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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

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

Reaching this weakness in Subscribe To Comments Reloaded <= 140129 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. For Subscribe To Comments Reloaded the fix is 140219: builds <= 140129 are affected, anything from 140219 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 140219, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Subscribe To Comments Reloaded: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Subscribe To Comments Reloaded 140219 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

Related records

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