Sahifa <= 2.4.0 - Cross-Site Request Forgery

2013-01-01 00:00
Akastep

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.0.0
Affected Theme
Sahifa
Affected Version
<= 2.4.0
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE
CVE pending
View all Sahifa vulnerabilities

At a glance

This record tracks a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Sahifa WordPress theme, affecting versions <= 2.4.0. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 3.0.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2013, reported by Akastep.

Vulnerability Overview

The Sahifa theme for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 2.4.0. This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation in the 'mpanel-functions.php' file. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to gain otherwise restricted access to administrative actions via a forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Reaching this weakness in Sahifa <= 2.4.0 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site request forgery abuses the fact that browsers attach a victim's cookies to any request, so a state-changing action that only checks who you are, not whether you meant to act, can be triggered from another site.

An attacker who gets a logged-in user to load a crafted page can perform that action as them, with the impact scaling to whatever the victim's role is allowed to do. For Sahifa the fix is 3.0.0: builds <= 2.4.0 are affected, anything from 3.0.0 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.0.0, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Sahifa: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Sahifa 3.0.0 closes this, and updating the theme is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

Related records

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