Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 0.9.10
- Affected Plugin
- WP-Syntax
- Affected Version
<= 0.9.9- CVSS
- 9.8Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
- CVE
CVE-2009-2852
At a glance
CVE-2009-2852 is a critical-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the WP-Syntax WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 0.9.9. 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 0.9.10; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2009, reported by Inj3ct0r.
Vulnerability Overview
WP-Syntax plugin 0.9.9 and earlier for Wordpress, with register_globals enabled, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary PHP code via the test_filter[wp_head] array parameter to test/index.php, which is used in a call to the call_user_func_array function.
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-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
Reaching this weakness in WP-Syntax <= 0.9.9 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Code injection means input from a request reaches a language construct that evaluates code, so the attacker's text is executed rather than treated as data.
The injected code runs with the web server's privileges, giving the attacker the same access to the database and filesystem as WordPress itself. For WP-Syntax the fix is 0.9.10: builds <= 0.9.9 are affected, anything from 0.9.10 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 0.9.10, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to WP-Syntax: 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: WP-Syntax 0.9.10 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Scanner
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in WP-Syntax
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