WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System <= 7.1.4 - Authentication Bypass

2016-06-12 00:00
Kacper Szurek

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 8.0.0
Affected Plugin
WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System
Affected Version
< 8.0.0
CVSS
9.8Critical
Weakness type
CWE-288 · Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
CVE
CVE pending
View all WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System vulnerabilities

At a glance

This record tracks a critical-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability in the WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 8.0.0. 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 8.0.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2016, reported by Kacper Szurek.

Vulnerability Overview

The WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass in versions up to, and including, 7.1.4. This is due to the plugin only requiring a valid email for the loginGuestFacebook AJAX action which is passed to the wp_set_auth_cookie() function and will log the user in as the account associated with the supplied email. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to log in as any users account, including administrators.

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-288: Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel

WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System < 8.0.0 carries this weakness at wp_set_auth_cookie(), and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Authentication bypass through an alternate path means the application has a second route to a protected action that skips the checks the primary route performs.

The protection on the main path becomes irrelevant, because the attacker simply uses the route that never asks. For WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System the fix is 8.0.0: builds < 8.0.0 are affected, anything from 8.0.0 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 8.0.0, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System 8.0.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/d4804081-67b1-4c62-af8e-bdbcea2ba6e7

Related records

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