Path traversal and CSRF in wp_ajax_update_plugin() in WordPress WordPress

1) Path traversal and CSRF in wp_ajax_update_plugin()

EUVDB-ID: #VU353

Risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1: 6.9 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H/E:F/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2016-10148,CVE-2016-6897,CVE-2016-6896

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

Exploit availability: Yes

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to gain access to potentially sensitive data and cause denial of service.

The vulnerability exists due to insufficient sanitization of directory traversal sequences passed via the "plugin" HTTP GET parameter to wp_ajax_update_plugin() function in "/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" script. A remote authenticated attacker can send a specially crafted HTTP GET request to vulnerable file and read contents of arbitrary file on the vulnerable system. Additionaly, it is possible to cause denial of service conditions by repeatedly reading /dev/random file and depleting the entropy pool.

This vulnerability can be exploited via CSRF attack, which will allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to cause denial of service of the target system.

Mitigation

Update to version 4.6.

Vulnerable software versions

WordPress: 4.2 - 4.5.3

External links

http://sumofpwn.nl/advisory/2016/path_traversal_vulnerability_in_wordpress_core_ajax_handlers.html
http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_4.6

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability. However, a fully functional exploit for this vulnerability is available.