WordPress Podlove Podcast Publisher 2.5.3 SQL Injection

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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 podcastersa 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/  
  
  
  
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