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Author: James Golovich

Ultimate Member <= 1.3.52 allows users to set arbitrary user meta data

by James Golovich

It had been over a year since I last looked at the Ultimate Member plugin. The free version claims to have 30,000+ installs now on the wordpress.org repository page.

I have a need for a project I’m working on and was hoping it would be a good fit. After a bit of digging I noticed a severe issue that allowed a logged in user to modify arbitrary user_meta data.

Most of the information a user could edit through their user profile page, but there are certain data pairs that should not be able to be modified (like the wp_capabilities field).  If a user is able to change this they can give themselves administrator privileges on a site.

Timeline

Ninja Forms <= 2.9.42 Multiple Critical Security Vulnerabilities

by James Golovich

ninjaforms

Multiple critical security vulnerabilities were discovered in the Ninja Forms plugin for WordPress. If you are using a version less than 2.9.42, update immediately!

Ninja Forms is a very popular WordPress plugin to easily build forms for WordPress.  The WordPress.org repository claims there are 500,000+ active installs and ninjaforms.com claims there have been over 2.38 million downloads of the plugin as of May 4th 2016. The plugin is currently listed as the 35th most popular plugin in the WordPress.org repository.

Multiple critical security vulnerabilities were discovered while doing a cursory investigation before deciding to use a plugin and disclosed to the WP Ninjas team. I did not do a full audit of the code base but I recommended the team do a complete audit before releasing an update. After they were patched, I recommended they contact the WordPress.org plugin security team to get help with forcing an automatic security update.

Vulnerable Versions

Version 2.9.36 to 2.9.42 are vulnerable to all of the following critical security vulnerabilities. The most sever vulnerability allows unrestricted uploading of files which could allow remote code execution on a typical webserver setup. The only condition required on a site to attack it is to already have a form enabled, which if this plugin is installed the chances of a form being in use are very high.

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OptinMonster < 1.1.4.6 allows execution of arbitrary WordPress shortcodes

by James Golovich

OptinMonster is a WordPress plugin/service to collect leads from customers visiting a website. The plugin is free to download from wordpress.org and it claims there are 20,000+ active installs. The service does require a membership, so presumably they have contacted all of their customers to tell them to upgrade.

I discovered an issue that allows any non-authenticated user to execute arbitrary WordPress shortcodes. Generally this type of access is only allowed by users with the ability to edit content on a site. Most of the default shortcodes aren’t very exciting and don’t provide much leverage for an attacker, but many third-party plugins expect that anyone who is able to execute shortcodes has sufficient permission that they don’t need to provide any further security.

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