CVE-2023-6989

Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking & Intrusion Prevention Security <= 18.5.9 - Unauthenticated Local File Inclusion

2024-02-05 00:00
hir0ot

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 18.5.10
Affected Plugin
Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking, Brute-Force Login Protection & File Scanning
Affected Version
<= 18.5.9
CVSS
9.8Critical
Weakness type
CWE-98 · Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion')
CVE
CVE-2023-6989
View all Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking, Brute-Force Login Protection & File Scanning vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-6989 is a critical-severity Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion') vulnerability in the Shield Security WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 18.5.9. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 18.5.10; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2024, reported by hir0ot.

Vulnerability Overview

The Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking & Intrusion Prevention Security plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Local File Inclusion in all versions up to, and including, 18.5.9 via the render_action_template parameter. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attacker to include and execute PHP files on the server, allowing the execution of any PHP code in those files.

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, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-98: Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion')

Reaching this weakness in Shield Security <= 18.5.9 takes no account at all. PHP file inclusion means a path used by include or require is built from request data, so the file that gets executed is under the caller's influence.

Including an attacker-influenced file executes its contents, which is why this class is routinely chained with an upload or log-poisoning step to reach code execution. For Shield Security the fix is 18.5.10: builds <= 18.5.9 are affected, anything from 18.5.10 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 18.5.10, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Shield Security 18.5.10 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Scanner
  • Login Security

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-6989https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/063826cc-7ff3-4869-9831-f6a4a4bbe74chttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-6989

Related records

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