Cloud Vulnerability DB
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Vulnerability DatabaseCVE-2023-38389
CVE-2023-38389:
WordPress vulnerability analysis and mitigation
Overview
The Jupiter X Core WordPress plugin (versions <= 3.4.3) contained a critical vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-38389. This security flaw allowed unauthenticated attackers to take control of any WordPress user account by only knowing their email address. The vulnerability was discovered in July 2023 and was patched in version 3.4.3 released on August 9, 2023. Jupiter X Core is a required plugin for the Jupiter X theme, which has over 170,000 sales on ThemeForest (Patchstack).
Technical details
The vulnerability existed in the Facebook login process of the plugin, specifically in the 'ajaxhandler' function. The flaw allowed unauthenticated users to manipulate the 'social-media-user-facebook-id' meta value for any user through the 'setuserfacebookid' function. Since this meta value was used for user authentication in WordPress, attackers could exploit it to authenticate as any registered user on the site. The vulnerability received a critical CVSS score of 9.8 (WPScan, Patchstack).
Impact
The vulnerability allowed attackers to take complete control of any WordPress user account, including administrator accounts, provided they knew the target's email address. This level of access could potentially lead to full website compromise and unauthorized administrative actions (BleepingComputer).
Mitigation and workarounds
The vulnerability was patched in Jupiter X Core version 3.4.3. The fix involved modifying the Facebook login process to fetch the required email address and unique user ID directly from Facebook's authentication endpoint, ensuring the legitimacy of the login process. Users are strongly recommended to update to version 3.4.3 or later to mitigate the risk (Patchstack).
Community reactions
The security community responded quickly to the disclosure, with multiple security firms and researchers highlighting the critical nature of the vulnerability. Security companies like Patchstack issued early warnings to their customers, and the vulnerability received significant attention in cybersecurity news outlets (BleepingComputer).
Additional resources
Source: This report was generated using AI
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