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Core Security Technologies - CoreLabs Advisory
http://www.coresecurity.com/corelabs/
XSS Vulnerability in NextGEN Gallery Wordpress Plugin
1. *Advisory Information*
Title: XSS Vulnerability in NextGEN Gallery Wordpress Plugin
Advisory Id: CORE-2010-0323
Advisory URL:
http://www.coresecurity.com/content/nextgen-gallery-xss-vulnerability
Date published: 2010-04-06
Date of last update: 2010-03-25
Vendors contacted: Alex Rabe
Release mode: Coordinated release
2. *Vulnerability Information*
Class: Cross site scripting [CWE-79]
Impact: Code execution
Remotely Exploitable: Yes
Locally Exploitable: No
Bugtraq ID: N/A
CVE Name: CVE-2010-1186
3. *Vulnerability Description*
An XSS[1] vulneravility has been discovered in NextGEN Gallery[2], a
very popular and commonly used plugin for the Wordpress content
management system commonly found as a blogging platform. This
vulnerability results from reflected unsanitized imput that can be
crafted into an attack by a malicious user by manipulating the 'mode'
parameter of the 'xml/media-rss.php' script.
4. *Vulnerable packages*
. NextGEN Gallery 1.5.0
. NextGEN Gallery 1.5.1
. Older versions are probably affected too, but they were not checked.
5. *Non-vulnerable packages*
. NextGEN Gallery 1.5.2
6. *Solutions and Workarounds*
On the server side, you can upgrade to a non-vulnerable version. Onthe
client you can use a browser that obeys the Content-Type header
specified by the server, such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple
Safari or Opera. Internet Explorer 8 with the XSS Filter won't execute
the malicious scripts.
7. *Credits*
These vulnerabilities were discovered and researched by Alejandro
Rodriguez, from Core Security Technologies, during Core Bugweek 2009
as a member of the "Los Herederos de Don Pablo (HDP)" team.
8. *Technical Description / Proof of Concept Code*
This vulerablity is triggered because the 'mode' parameter on the
'media-rss.php' script is not correctly escaped to avoid HTML code
injection.
/-----
$mode = $_GET["mode"];
- -----/
This parameter is reflected back to the user if no correct 'mode' is
selected:
/-----
} else {
header('content-type:text/plain;charset=utf-8');
echo sprintf(__("Invalid MediaRSS command (%s).","nggallery"), $mode);
exit;
}
- -----/
Its worth to note that the 'Content-Type' is chosen safely by the
plugin, but this is note enough to avoid code injection because some
browsers (most notably Microsoft Internet Explorer) choose the content
type by parsing the content the web-server returns instead of obeying
the proper headers.
This vulnerability can be triggered on any Wordpress instalation with
the NextGEN Gallery extension installed by visiting the following URL
on a browser with this issue. If using IE 8 the XSS Filter must be
turned off.
/-----
http://localhost/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/xml/media-rss.php?mode=%3Cscript%3Ealert(1)%3C/script%3E
- -----/
9. *Report Timeline*
. 2010-03-25:
Core Security Technologies notifies Alex Rabe of the vulnerability,
offering a draft for this advisory in plaintext or encrypted form (if
proper keys are sent). April 5th, 2010, is proposed as a release date.
. 2010-03-25:
Alex Rabe acknowledges Core Security Technologies's e-mail, and asks
for the advisory draft in plain text.
. 2010-03-25:
Core Security Technologies sends the advisory draft to Alex Rabe.
. 2010-03-25:
Alex Rabe acknowledges the vulneravility, confirms it for NextGEN
Gallery 1.5.0 and 1.5.1, and informs than 1.5.2 (due to be released on
March 26th) will contain a fix.
. 2010-03-26:
NextGEN Gallery 1.5.2 is released.
. 2010-04-06:
Advisory CORE-2010-0323 is published.
10. *References*
[1] http://www.owasp.org/index.php/Cross-site_Scripting_(XSS)
[2] http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/
11. *About CoreLabs*
CoreLabs, the research center of Core Security Technologies, is
charged with anticipating the future needs and requirements for
information security technologies. We conduct our research in several
important areas of computer security including system vulnerabilities,
cyber attack planning and simulation, source code auditing, and
cryptography. Our results include problem formalization,
identification of vulnerabilities, novel solutions and prototypes for
new technologies. CoreLabs regularly publishes security advisories,
technical papers, project information and shared software tools for
public use at: http://www.coresecurity.com/corelabs.
12. *About Core Security Technologies*
Core Security Technologies develops strategic solutions that help
security-conscious organizations worldwide develop and maintain a
proactive process for securing their networks. The company's flagship
product, CORE IMPACT, is the most comprehensive product for performing
enterprise security assurance testing. CORE IMPACT evaluates network,
endpoint and end-user vulnerabilities and identifies what resources
are exposed. It enables organizations to determine if current security
investments are detecting and preventing attacks. Core Security
Technologies augments its leading technology solution with world-class
security consulting services, including penetration testing and
software security auditing. Based in Boston, MA and Buenos Aires,
Argentina, Core Security Technologies can be reached at 617-399-6980
or on the Web at http://www.coresecurity.com.
13. *Disclaimer*
The contents of this advisory are copyright (c) 2009 Core Security
Technologies and (c) 2009 CoreLabs, and may be distributed freely
provided that no fee is charged for this distribution and proper
credit is given.
14. *PGP/GPG Keys*
This advisory has been signed with the GPG key of Core Security
Technologies advisories team, which is available for download at
http://www.coresecurity.com/files/attachments/core_security_advisories.asc.
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