WordPress 4.7.x < 4.7.2 REST API 'id' Parameter Privilege Escalation

high Nessus Plugin ID 97210

Synopsis

The remote web server hosts a PHP script that is affected by a privilege escalation vulnerability.

Description

The WordPress application running on the remote web server is version 4.7.x prior to 4.7.2. It is, therefore, affected by a privilege escalation vulnerability in the REST API due to a failure to properly sanitize user-supplied input to the 'id' parameter when editing or deleting blog posts. An unauthenticated, remote attacker can exploit this issue to run arbitrary PHP code, inject content into blog posts, modify blog post attributes, or delete blog posts.

The WordPress REST API is enabled by default as of version 4.7.0. This vulnerability was silently patched in WordPress version 4.7.2.

Note that WordPress is reportedly affected by additional vulnerabilities; however, Nessus has not tested for these.

Solution

Upgrade to WordPress version 4.7.2 or later.

See Also

http://www.nessus.org/u?49ca66d9

http://www.nessus.org/u?172a71ca

https://thehackernews.com/2017/02/wordpress-hack-seo.html

http://www.nessus.org/u?f1dc5ff8

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 97210

File Name: wordpress_rest_api_priv_esc.nasl

Version: 1.6

Type: remote

Family: CGI abuses

Published: 2/16/2017

Updated: 11/13/2019

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3.6

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5

Temporal Score: 3.7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2017-1001000

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:wordpress:wordpress

Required KB Items: installed_sw/WordPress, www/PHP

Exploit Ease: No exploit is required

Patch Publication Date: 1/26/2017

Vulnerability Publication Date: 2/1/2017

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2017-1001000