WordPress before 4.5.3 allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions and remove a category attribute from a post via unspecified vectors.

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

  - WordPress before 4.5.3 allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions and remove a     category attribute from a post via unspecified vectors. (CVE-2016-5837)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Several vulnerabilities were discovered in wordpress, a web blogging tool, which could allow remote attackers to compromise a site via cross-site scripting, bypass restrictions, obtain sensitive revision-history information, or mount a denial of service.

Versions of WordPress prior to 4.5.3 are affected by multiple vulnerabilities :

 - A flaw exists in Customizer, which may allow an attacker to perform a "redirect bypass".
 - Multiple cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks exist because the program does not validate input when handling attachment names before returing it to users. This allows a remote attacker to craft a request that can execute arbitrary script in a user's browser session withing the trust relationship between their browser and the server.
 - A flaw in the program may allow an attacker to gain access to potentially sensitive information in the revision history. No further details have been provided by the vendor.
 - A flaw exists in oEmbed, which may allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service. No further details have been provided by the vendor.
 - The program contains a flaw which may allow an unauthorized attacker to remove categories from posts. No further details have been provided by the vendor.
 - A flaw is triggered when handling stolen cookies. This may allow a remote attacker to make changes to passwords. No further details have been provided by the vendor.
 - Multiple flaws exist related to 'sanitize_file_name()', which may allow an attacker to have an unspecified impact. No further details have been provided by the vendor.

Adam Silverstein reports :

WordPress 4.5.3 is now available. This is a security release for all previous versions and we strongly encourage you to update your sites immediately.

WordPress versions 4.5.2 and earlier are affected by several security issues: redirect bypass in the customizer, reported by Yassine Aboukir; two different XSS problems via attachment names, reported by Jouko Pynnonenand Divyesh Prajapati; revision history information disclosure, reported independently by John Blackbourn from the WordPress security team and by Dan Moen from the Wordfence Research Team; oEmbed denial of service reported by Jennifer Dodd from Automattic; unauthorized category removal from a post, reported by David Herrera from Alley Interactive; password change via stolen cookie, reported by Michael Adams from the WordPress security team;
and some less secure sanitize_file_name edge cases reported by Peter Westwood of the WordPress security team.

According to its self-reported version number, the WordPress application running on the remote web server is prior to 4.5.3.
It is, therefore, affected by the following vulnerabilities :

  - An unspecified flaw exists in the Customizer component     that allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to     perform a redirect bypass.

  - Multiple cross-site scripting vulnerabilities exist due     to improper validation of user-supplied input when     handling attachment names. An unauthenticated, remote     attacker can exploit these issues, via a specially     crafted request, to execute arbitrary script code in a     user's browser session.

  - An information disclosure vulnerability exists that     allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to disclose     revision history.

  - An unspecified flaw exists in oEmbed that allows an     unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of     service condition.

  - An unspecified flaw exists that allows an     unauthenticated, remote attacker to remove categories     from posts.

  - An unspecified flaw exists that is triggered when     handling stolen cookies. An unauthenticated, remote     attacker can exploit this to change user passwords.

  - Multiple unspecified flaws exist in the     sanitize_file_name() function that allow an     unauthenticated, remote attacker to have an unspecified     impact.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
253897	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2016-5837	Nessus	Misc.	high
92706	Debian DSA-3639-1 : wordpress - security update	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
9388	WordPress < 4.5.3 Multiple Vulnerabilities	Nessus Network Monitor	CGI	medium
91840	FreeBSD : wordpress -- multiple vulnerabilities (bfcc23b6-3b27-11e6-8e82-002590263bf5)	Nessus	FreeBSD Local Security Checks	high
91810	WordPress < 4.5.3 Multiple Vulnerabilities	Nessus	CGI abuses	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2016-5837

high

Tenable Plugins

high

high

medium

high

high