CVE-2013-0731

MailUp newsletter sign-up form < 1.3.3 - Cross-Site Scripting

2013-03-13 00:00
Charlie Eriksen

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.3.3
Affected Version
< 1.3.3
CVSS
6.1Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2013-0731
View all MailUp newsletter sign-up form vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2013-0731 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the MailUp newsletter sign-up form WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 1.3.3. It carries a CVSS score of 6.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.3.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2013, reported by Charlie Eriksen.

Vulnerability Overview

ajax.functions.php in the MailUp plugin before 1.3.3 for WordPress does not properly restrict access to unspecified Ajax functions, which allows remote attackers to modify plugin settings and conduct cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks by setting the wordpress_logged_in cookie. NOTE: this is due to an incomplete fix for a similar issue that was fixed in 1.3.2.

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 MailUp newsletter sign-up form < 1.3.3 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 MailUp newsletter sign-up form the fix is 1.3.3: builds < 1.3.3 are affected, anything from 1.3.3 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.3.3, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to MailUp newsletter sign-up form: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: MailUp newsletter sign-up form 1.3.3 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

Related records

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