CVE-2015-6522

WP Symposium <= 15.8 - Unauthenticated SQL Injection

2015-08-09 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 15.8
Affected Plugin: WP Symposium
Affected Version: < 15.8
CVSS: 9.8Critical
Weakness type: CWE-89 · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')
CVE: CVE-2015-6522

At a glance

CVE-2015-6522 is a critical-severity Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') vulnerability in the WP Symposium WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 15.8. 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 15.8; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2015.

Vulnerability Overview

SQL injection vulnerability in the WP Symposium plugin before 15.8 for WordPress allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands via the size parameter to get_album_item.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, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-89: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection')

Reaching this weakness in WP Symposium < 15.8 takes no account at all. SQL injection happens when request data is concatenated into a query instead of being bound as a parameter, letting an attacker change the structure of the statement rather than just its values.

A working injection can read any table the database user can see, which on a WordPress install means user records, password hashes and session or API secrets stored in options. For WP Symposium the fix is 15.8: builds < 15.8 are affected, anything from 15.8 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 15.8, 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. None of that substitutes for the fix: WP Symposium 15.8 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-6522 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/4ad379ad-8733-4015-a892-375604339695 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-6522

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in WP Symposium

CVSS Vector

9.8

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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