PT-2017-9052 · WordPress · Wordpress

Yorick Koster · Published 2017-01-18 · Updated 2017-09-03 · CVE-2016-6896

Positive Technologies (AI Summary)

CVSS v3.1

7.1

High

Base vector

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

Name of the Vulnerable Software and Affected Versions WordPress version 4.5.3

Description A directory traversal issue exists in the wp ajax update plugin function, allowing remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service or read certain text files by including a .. (dot dot) in the plugin parameter to the /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php API endpoint. This can be demonstrated by reading from /dev/random, which depletes the entropy pool.

Recommendations For WordPress version 4.5.3, consider disabling the wp ajax update plugin function until a patch is available to prevent exploitation. Restrict access to the /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php API endpoint to minimize the risk of denial of service or unauthorized file reads. Avoid using the plugin parameter in the affected API endpoint until the issue is resolved.

Exploit

Fix

DoS

Path traversal

Weakness Enumeration

CWE-22

Related Identifiers

CVE-2016-6896

Affected Products

Wordpress

References · 14

• 🔥 https://sumofpwn.nl/advisory/2016/path_traversal_vulnerability_in_wordpress_core_ajax_handlers.html · Exploit
• 🔥 https://exploit-db.com/exploits/40288 · Exploit
• https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-6896 · Vendor Advisory
• https://cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-6896 · Security Note
• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-6896 · Security Note
• https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-6896 · Vendor Advisory
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-6896 · Vendor Advisory
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/UBUNTU-CVE-2016-6896 · Vendor Advisory
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2016-6896 · Vendor Advisory
• http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/08/20/1 · Note
• https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/8606 · Note
• https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2016-6896 · Note
• http://securitytracker.com/id/1036683 · Note
• http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2016/q3/347 · Note