DefenseCode ThunderScan SAST Advisory
     WordPress Podlove Podcast Publisher Plugin
             Security Vulnerability

DefenseCode ThunderScan SAST Advisory WordPress Podlove Podcast Publisher Plugin Security Vulnerability Advisory ID: DC-2017-05-006 Advisory Title: WordPress Podlove Podcast Publisher Plugin Security Vulnerability Advisory URL: http://www.defensecode.com/advisories.php Software: WordPress Podlove Podcast Publisher plugin Language: PHP Version: 2.5.3 and below Vendor Status: Vendor contacted, update released Release Date: 2017/08/07 Risk: High 1. General Overview =================== During the security audit of Podlove Podcast Publisher 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, Podlove Podcast Publisher tries to solve the problem from the podcasters’ perspective and implements a variety of features and workflows that have been rather difficult to achieve with WordPress until now. Homepage: https://wordpress.org/plugins/podlove-podcasting-plugin-for-wordpress/ http://publisher.podlove.org/ 3. Vulnerability Description ============================ During the security analysis, ThunderScan discovered SQL injection vulnerability in Podlove Podcast Publisher WordPress plugin. The easiest way to reproduce the vulnerability is to visit the provided URL while being logged in as administrator or another user that is authorized to access the plugin settings page. Users that do not have full administrative privileges could abuse the database access the vulnerability provides to either escalate their privileges or obtain and modify database contents they were not supposed to be able to. Due to the missing nonce token, the attacker the vulnerable code is also directly exposed to attack vectors such as Cross Site request forgery (CSRF). 3.1 SQL injection Vulnerable Function: $wpdb->get_results($sql) Vulnerable Variable: $_GET['orderby'] Vulnerable URL: http://vulnerablesite.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=podlove_contributor_settings&order=asc&orderby=gender AND (SELECT * FROM (SELECT(SLEEP(5)))DefenseCode) File: lib\modules\contributors\contributor_list_table.php --------- 176 $orderby = 'ORDER BY ' . esc_sql($_GET['orderby']); ... 203 $data = \Podlove\Modules\Contributors\Model\Contributor::all( $orderby . ' ' . $order ); --------- File: lib\model\base.php --------- 234 public static function all( $sql_suffix = '' ) { 235 return self::find_all_by_sql( 236 'SELECT * FROM ' . static::table_name() . ' ' . $sql_suffix 237 ); ... 548 public static function find_all_by_sql($sql) { ... 554 $rows = $wpdb->get_results($sql); --------- 4. Solution =========== Vendor resolved the security issues after we reported the vulnerability. All users are strongly advised to update WordPress Podlove Podcast Publisher plugin to the latest available version. 5. Credits ========== Discovered with DefenseCode ThunderScan source code security analyzer by Neven Biruski. 6. Disclosure Timeline ====================== 2017/05/31 Vendor contacted 2017/06/05 Update released 2017/08/07 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/