Overview
The CVE-2015-10143 is a serious vulnerability that affects the Platform theme for WordPress websites. This vulnerability allows unauthorized modification of data, leading to potential privilege escalation. The impact of this vulnerability is severe, as it can enable unauthenticated attackers to gain administrative access to a vulnerable site. Given the widespread use of WordPress as a content management system, this vulnerability can potentially affect a vast number of websites, highlighting the urgent need for proper mitigation measures.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2015-10143
Severity: Critical (CVSS: 9.8)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Unauthorized modification of data leading to privilege escalation, potential system compromise or data leakage.
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Platform Theme for WordPress | Up to 1.4.4 (exclusive)
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability stems from a missing capability check on the *_ajax_save_options() function in the affected versions of the Platform theme for WordPress. This allows unauthenticated attackers to update arbitrary options on the WordPress site. Specifically, an attacker can change the default role for new registrations to administrator and enable user registration. This would allow the attacker to register as a new user and gain administrative access to the site.
Conceptual Example Code
The following is a conceptual example of how this vulnerability might be exploited using an HTTP POST request:
POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=platform_ajax_save_options HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerablesite.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
option_name=default_role&option_value=administrator&_wpnonce=
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**In this request, the attacker is using the vulnerable endpoint to change the default role for new registrations to administrator. The `_wpnonce` value would have to be obtained by the attacker through other means.
Mitigation Guidance
Website administrators using the vulnerable versions of the Platform theme for WordPress are strongly advised to apply the vendor patch as soon as possible. As an interim mitigation measure, a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can be used to detect and block attempts to exploit this vulnerability.