CVE-2020-8771

Backup and Staging by WP Time Capsule <= 1.21.15 - Authentication Bypass

2020-01-14 00:00
WebARX Security

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.21.16
Affected Plugin
Backup and Staging by WP Time Capsule
Affected Version
< 1.21.16
CVSS
9.8Critical
Weakness type
CWE-288 · Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
CVE
CVE-2020-8771
View all Backup and Staging by WP Time Capsule vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2020-8771 is a critical-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability in the Backup and Staging by WP Time Capsule WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 1.21.16. 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 1.21.16; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2020, reported by WebARX Security.

Vulnerability Overview

The Time Capsule plugin before 1.21.16 for WordPress has an authentication bypass. Any request containing IWP_JSON_PREFIX causes the client to be logged in as the first account on the list of administrator accounts. CVE-2020-37255 is a duplicate of this.

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

Reaching this weakness in Backup and Staging by WP Time Capsule < 1.21.16 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 Backup and Staging by WP Time Capsule the fix is 1.21.16: builds < 1.21.16 are affected, anything from 1.21.16 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.21.16, 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: Backup and Staging by WP Time Capsule 1.21.16 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-8771https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b8672fd2-dc7a-4717-9d25-84180ad9b134https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-8771

Related records

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