6. Disclosure Timeline

              DefenseCode ThunderScan SAST Advisory          WordPress Ad Widget Plugin Local File Inclusion                      Security Vulnerability Advisory ID:    DC-2017-01-001 Advisory Title: WordPress Ad Widget Plugin Local file Inclusion  Security Vulnerability Advisory URL:   http://www.defensecode.com/advisories.php Software:       WordPress Ad Widget plugin Language:       PHP Version:        2.10.0 and below Vendor Status:  Vendor contacted, update released Release Date:   2017/10/10 Risk:           Medium 1. General Overview =================== During the security audit of Ad Widget plugin for WordPress CMS, security vulnerability was discovered using DefenseCode ThunderScan application source code security analysis platform. More information about ThunderScan is available at URL: http://www.defensecode.com 2. Software Overview ==================== According to the plugin developers, Ad Widget enables it's users to easily upload ad images and ad code to their sidebar, for those that don't need or want a complicated ad management system. According to wordpress.org, it has more than 30,000 active installs. Homepage: https://wordpress.org/plugins/ad-widget/ https://github.com/broadstreetads/wordpress-ad-widget http://broadstreetads.com/about/contact/         3. Vulnerability Description ============================ During the security analysis, ThunderScan discovered Local File Inclusion vulnerability in WP Ad Widget plugin. By requesting a specially crafted URL, the attacker can cause remote server to execute a php file of his choosing. Although the user requesting the URL has to be logged into the WordPress administrative console, the attacker can cause the administrator to request such a URL by using various social engineering/phishing approaches. Specified file will be interpreted by php interpreter, and any valid php code will indeed be executed. If the php installation on server has "allow_url_include=1" configuration option set, this attack can be expanded to execute a php file from any remote URL. If the php version is less than 5.3.4, the ".php" that gets appended to the end of the file name attacker chose can be omitted by adding a null character ("%00") to the requested URL, and enable the attacker to execute any file, regardless of the extension. 3.1. Local File Inclusion   File:       ad-widget\views\modal\index.php   Fucntion:   require "$page.php";   Variable:   $_GET['step'];   Sample URL: http://vulnerablesite.com/wp-content/plugins/ad-widget/views/modal/?step=../../../../../../../etc/passwd%00   File: ad-widget\views\modal\index.php     ---------     38  $page = @$_GET['step'];     ...     68  require "$page.php";     ---------   4. Solution =========== Vendor thanked us and notified us the security issue was fixed after we reported it. All users are strongly advised to update WordPress Ad Widget plugin to the latest available version. 5. Credits ========== Discovered by Neven Biruski using DefenseCode ThunderScan source code security analyzer.   6. Disclosure Timeline ====================== 2017/03/28      Vendor contacted 2017/04/04      Vendor responded 2017/04/04      Update released 2017/10/10      Advisory released to the public 7. About DefenseCode ==================== DefenseCode L.L.C. delivers products and services designed to analyze and test web, desktop and mobile applications for security vulnerabilities. DefenseCode ThunderScan is a SAST (Static Application Security Testing, WhiteBox Testing) solution for performing extensive security audits of application source code. ThunderScan SAST performs fast and accurate analyses of large and complex source code projects delivering precise results and low false positive rate. DefenseCode WebScanner is a DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing, BlackBox Testing) solution for comprehensive security audits of active web applications. WebScanner will test a website's security by carrying out a large number of attacks using the most advanced techniques, just as a real attacker would. Subscribe for free software trial on our website http://www.defensecode.com/ . E-mail: defensecode[at]defensecode.com Website: http://www.defensecode.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/DefenseCode/