CVE-2014-8603

Backup, Restore and Migrate WordPress Sites With the XCloner Plugin <= 3.1.1 - Remote Code Execution

2014-10-17 00:00
Larry W. Cashdollar

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.1.2
Affected Plugin
Backup, Restore and Migrate your sites with XCloner
Affected Version
< 3.1.2
CVSS
7.2High
Weakness type
CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
CVE
CVE-2014-8603
View all Backup, Restore and Migrate your sites with XCloner vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2014-8603 is a high-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the Backup, Restore and Migrate your sites with XCloner WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 3.1.2. It carries a CVSS score of 7.2 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). The issue is fixed in version 3.1.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2014, reported by Larry W. Cashdollar.

Vulnerability Overview

cloner.functions.php in the XCloner plugin 3.1.1 for WordPress and 3.5.1 for Joomla! allows remote administrators to execute arbitrary code via shell metacharacters in the (1) file name when creating a backup or vectors related to the (2) $_CONFIG[tarpath], (3) $exclude, (4) $_CONFIG['tarcompress'], (5) $_CONFIG['filename'], (6) $_CONFIG['exfile_tar'], (7) $_CONFIG[sqldump], (8) $_CONFIG['mysql_host'], (9) $_CONFIG['mysql_pass'], (10) $_CONFIG['mysql_user'], (11) $database_name, or (12) $sqlfile variable.

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 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')

Backup, Restore and Migrate your sites with XCloner < 3.1.2 carries this weakness at tarcompress, and reaching it 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 Backup, Restore and Migrate your sites with XCloner the fix is 3.1.2: builds < 3.1.2 are affected, anything from 3.1.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.1.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Backup, Restore and Migrate your sites with XCloner: 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: Backup, Restore and Migrate your sites with XCloner 3.1.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Scanner
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-8603https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b8cdd8b4-52e6-431b-b2f0-bfe1d0c1dd91https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-8603

Related records

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