CVE-2015-5484

Plotly < 1.0.3 - Stored Cross-Site Scripting

2015-07-13 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 1.0.3
Affected Plugin: Plotly
Affected Version: < 1.0.3
CVSS: 6.4Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2015-5484

At a glance

CVE-2015-5484 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Plotly WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 1.0.3. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 1.0.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2015, reported by Mallory Adams.

Vulnerability Overview

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Plotly plugin before 1.0.3 for WordPress allows remote authenticated users to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via a post.

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 interaction from a victim user.

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

Reaching this weakness in Plotly < 1.0.3 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 Plotly the fix is 1.0.3: builds < 1.0.3 are affected, anything from 1.0.3 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.0.3, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Plotly: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Plotly 1.0.3 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-5484 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/50cb130d-2e9c-429c-a56c-4546e705981a https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-5484

Related records

Same weakness class

6.4CVE-2015-9347: Plotly <= 1.0.2 Stored Cross-Site ScriptingCVE-2015-9347

CVSS Vector

6.4

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

Base

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

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