CVE-2016-10972

Newspaper - News & WooCommerce WordPress Theme <= 6.7 - Arbitrary Options Update

2016-06-06 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 6.7.2
Affected Theme: Newspaper - News & WooCommerce WordPress Theme
Affected Version: <= 6.7.1
CVSS: 9.8Critical
Weakness type: CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
CVE: CVE-2016-10972

View all Newspaper - News & WooCommerce WordPress Theme vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2016-10972 is a critical-severity Missing Authorization vulnerability in the Newspaper - News & WooCommerce WordPress Theme WordPress theme, affecting versions <= 6.7.1. 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 6.7.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2016, reported by WP0DAY.COM.

Vulnerability Overview

The newspaper theme before 6.7.2 for WordPress has a lack of options access control via td_ajax_update_panel.

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-862: Missing Authorization

Reaching this weakness in Newspaper - News & WooCommerce WordPress Theme <= 6.7.1 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. A missing authorization check means a function is reachable by anyone who can reach the endpoint, because the code never asks whether the caller is allowed to perform the action.

Any user who can reach the endpoint gets to run an action reserved for higher-privileged roles, from reading protected data to changing settings or content. For Newspaper - News & WooCommerce WordPress Theme the fix is 6.7.2: builds <= 6.7.1 are affected, anything from 6.7.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 6.7.2, 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: Newspaper - News & WooCommerce WordPress Theme 6.7.2 closes this, and updating the theme is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-10972 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/cc742fa0-7d10-4fe4-b95c-7d4ca563d402 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-10972

Related records

Same weakness class

9.8CVE-2023-1597: tagDiv Cloud Library Arbitrary User Metadata UpdateCVE-2023-1597

Other vulnerabilities in Newspaper - News & WooCommerce WordPress Theme

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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