WordPress patches SQL injection bug in security release

By -
Webmasters should update immediately to prevent website takeovers.

A bug discovered in WordPress allows attackers to trigger an SQL injection attack leading to complete website hijacking.
The vulnerability was discovered in the WordPress content management system (CMS) versions 4.8.2 and below. On Tuesday, WordPress announced the launch of version 4.8.3 as a security release which mitigates the security flaw.
The CMS provider "strongly encourage[s] you to update your sites immediately."
The vulnerability, CVE-2017-14723, occurs as WordPress versions 4.8.2 and earlier mishandles certain characters, which can lead to $wpdb->prepare() creating "unexpected and unsafe queries" which can lead to potential SQL injection attacks.
"WordPress core is not directly vulnerable to this issue, but we've added hardening to prevent plugins and themes from accidentally causing a vulnerability," WordPress says.
The vulnerability was reported by security researcher Anthony Ferrara through the HackerOne bug bounty platform on September 20th.
The problem was discovered in a fix released by WordPress in 4.8.2 that didn't actually resolve a core security issue and also impacted functionality for many websites, breaking an estimated 1.2 million lines of code in the process.
A day after the release, Ferrara reported the bug, but says the notice was "ignored for several weeks."
After notifying the WordPress team that he intended to disclose the issue publicly, WordPress then gave the researcher its attention, and after five weeks, frustration on the researcher's part and miscommunication issues, the Wordpress team and Ferrara were able to negotiate a time for public release.
WordPress and Ferrara worked together to then create a fix which mitigates the issue -- although the researcher says that more needs to be done to completely resolve the problems the previous patch caused.
"The correct fix is to ditch this whole prepare mechanism (which returns a string SQL query). Do what basically everyone else does and return a statement/query object or execute the query directly. That way you can't double-prepare a string.
It's worth saying that this would be a major breaking change for WP.
It doesn't need to be (and in practice shouldn't) overnight - they can do it in parallel with the existing API, deprecating the old one and removing in time - but it does need to happen.
The current system is insecure-by-design. That doesn't mean it's always hackable, but it means you have to actively work to make it not attackable."
"The core issue is mitigated," Ferrara added. "My perspective of the interaction was frustrating at first, but got far better towards the end. I was disappointed for a good part of the past 6 weeks. I'm now cautiously hopeful."
Users can update automatically or download WordPress 4.8.3 to manually update.
In September, WordPress fixed a cross-site scripting vulnerability and a path traversal security flaw in a security patch.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Hacker steals data of millions of Bulgarians, emails it to local media

By -
Image
  Source of the data breach appears to be the country's National Revenue Agency A mysterious hacker has stolen the personal details of millions of Bulgarians and has emailed download links to the stolen data to local news publications. The data's origin is believed to be the country's National Revenue Agency (NRA), a department of the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance. In a  message posted on its website  on Monday, the NRA said it was working with the Ministry of the Interior and the State Agency for National Security (SANS) to investigate the hack. "We are currently verifying whether the data is real," said the NRA. Hours after this article's publication, the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior  confirmed the hack . HACKER STOLE 110 DATABASES, LEAKED 57 According to reports from local media [ 1 ,  2 ,  3 ,  4 ,  5 ], who received part of the data, the hacker said they stole the personal details of over five million Bulgarians, of the country's total ...
Read more

​Linux totally dominates supercomputers

By -
Image
It finally happened. Today, all 500 of the world's top 500 supercomputers are running Linux. Linux rules supercomputing. This day has been coming since 1998, when Linux first appeared on the TOP500 Supercomputer list . Today it finally happened:  All 500 of the world's fastest supercomputers are running Linux . The last two non-Linux systems, a pair of Chinese IBM POWER computers running AIX, dropped off the  November 2017 TOP500 Supercomputer list . Overall, China now leads the supercomputing race with 202 computers to the US' 144. China also leads the US in aggregate performance. China's supercomputers represent 35.4 percent of the Top500's flops, while the US trails with 29.6 percent. With an anti-science regime in charge of the government, America will only continue to see its technological lead decline. When the  first Top500 supercomputer list was compiled in June 1993 , Linux was barely more than a toy. It hadn't even adopted Tux as its masc...
Read more

Microsoft tries to stem its self-made collaboration-tool confusion

By -
Image
Microsoft is using this week's Ignite conference to try to help clarify its collaboration-tool strategy. Here's how SharePoint, Teams and Yammer figure in the mix. Choice is good. But too much choice, especially when it comes to collaboration tools, has been a problem for Microsoft. This isn't news to customers, partners or Microsoft execs themselves. But at the company's Ignite IT Pro conference in Orlando this week, Microsoft execs took a step to try to clarify the company's strategy and messaging in this area. Microsoft Office 365 Marketing chief Ron Markezich kicked off the conference this week with a slide entitled "Microsoft 365 Teamwork: Where to Start a Conversation." That slide attempts to do what  Microsoft initially attempted with a 60-plus-page whitepaper : Clarify which collaboration tools customers should use when. The slide, which features SharePoint -- and its files, sites and content storage at the center -- is broken down into t...
Read more