CVE-2018-16613

wpForo < = 1.5.1 - Privilege Escalation

2018-09-06 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 1.5.2
Affected Plugin: wpForo Forum
Affected Version: <= 1.5.1
CVSS: 9.8Critical
Weakness type: CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management
CVE: CVE-2018-16613

At a glance

CVE-2018-16613 is a critical-severity Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in the wpForo Forum WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.5.1. 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 1.5.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2018, reported by 9emin1.

Vulnerability Overview

An issue was discovered in the update function in the wpForo Forum plugin before 1.5.2 for WordPress. A registered forum user is able to escalate privilege to the forum administrator without any form of user interaction.

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-269: Improper Privilege Management

Reaching this weakness in wpForo Forum <= 1.5.1 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Improper privilege management means the code lets an account end up with capabilities its role should not have.

It converts a low-privileged account into an administrative one, which makes every other restriction on the site irrelevant. For wpForo Forum the fix is 1.5.2: builds <= 1.5.1 are affected, anything from 1.5.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.5.2, 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: wpForo Forum 1.5.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-16613 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/44ba3eee-525e-46ba-ae02-6f7a28f80c50 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-16613

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in wpForo Forum

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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