CVE-2020-17362

Nova Lite < 1.3.9 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

2020-08-08 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 1.3.9
Affected Theme: Nova Lite
Affected Version: < 1.3.9
CVSS: 6.1Medium
Weakness type: CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE: CVE-2020-17362

At a glance

CVE-2020-17362 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Nova Lite WordPress theme, affecting versions < 1.3.9. It carries a CVSS score of 6.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.3.9; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2020, reported by Talip Karabas.

Vulnerability Overview

search.php in the Nova Lite theme before 1.3.9 for WordPress allows Reflected XSS.

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.

CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

Reaching this weakness in Nova Lite < 1.3.9 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site scripting happens when input from a request is written into a page without being escaped for the context it lands in, so the browser parses attacker-supplied text as markup or script.

Injected script runs with the privileges of whoever views the affected page, which is how these flaws turn into administrator session theft, silent account creation or persistent backdoors in page content. For Nova Lite the fix is 1.3.9: builds < 1.3.9 are affected, anything from 1.3.9 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.3.9, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Nova Lite: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Nova Lite 1.3.9 closes this, and updating the theme is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-17362 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/46a16b7b-6de4-49a6-83e3-309f8ab43505 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-17362

CVSS Vector

6.1

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionRequired
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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