Security bypass in WordPress - CVE-2017-1001000

Detailed vulnerability description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to inject arbitrary content.

The vulnerability exists due to web application fails to check privileges when processing requests sent via REST API in /wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-posts-controller.php script. A remote attacker can send a specially crafted HTTP request to /wp-json/wp/v2/posts/{POST_ID} URL and post arbitrary content to your website.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability may allow an attacker to perform phishing and drive-by-download attacks, spread spam content, etc. In certain cases this vulnerability can lead to remote PHP code execution leveraging functionality of third-party plugins.

Note: this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild.

How to mitigate CVE-2017-1001000

Sources

• https://wordpress.org/news/2017/01/wordpress-4-7-2-security-release/
• https://blog.sucuri.net/2017/02/content-injection-vulnerability-wordpress-rest-api.html