full-disclosure - [FD] Stop User Enumeration allows user enumeration via the REST API (WordPress plugin)

Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2017 12:27:09 +0000
From: dxw Security <security@....com>
To: fulldisclosure@...lists.org
Subject: [FD] Stop User Enumeration allows user enumeration via the REST API
	(WordPress plugin)

Details
================
Software: Stop User Enumeration
Version: 1.3.8
Homepage: https://wordpress.org/plugins/stop-user-enumeration/
Advisory report: https://security.dxw.com/advisories/stop-user-enumeration-rest-api/
CVE: Awaiting assignment
CVSS: 5 (Medium; AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N)

Description
================
Stop User Enumeration allows user enumeration via the REST API

Vulnerability
================
Stop User Enumeration optionally allows stopping user enumeration via the WordPress REST API. When that option is enabled, requests to /wp-json/wp/v2/users are blocked and return an error like this:
{\"code\":\"rest_cannot_access\",\"message\":\"Only authenticated users can access the User endpoint REST API.\",\"data\":{\"status\":401}}
It also successfully blocks requests such as /?rest_route=/wp/v2/users.
The blocking relies upon the following comparison:
if( preg_match(\'/users/\', $_SERVER[\'REQUEST_URI\']) !== 0 ) {
On the surface this looks like it should work. And it seems like we can’t get around the restriction by sending a POST request with the parameter rest_route=/wp/v2/users, because WordPress thinks we want to create a user and responds with an error.
However, the REST API allows simulating different request types. As such, we can perform a POST request with the “users” string in the body of the request, and tell the REST API to act like it’s received a GET request.

Proof of concept
================
curl http://localhost/?_method=GET -d rest_route=/wp/v2/users

Mitigations
================
Upgrade to version 1.3.9 or later.

Disclosure policy
================
dxw believes in responsible disclosure. Your attention is drawn to our disclosure policy: https://security.dxw.com/disclosure/

Please contact us on security@....com to acknowledge this report if you received it via a third party (for example, plugins@...dpress.org) as they generally cannot communicate with us on your behalf.

This vulnerability will be published if we do not receive a response to this report with 14 days.

Timeline
================

2017-05-16: Discovered
2017-07-18: Reported to vendor via info@...lworks.net
2017-07-18: First response from vendor
2017-07-19: Vendor reports issue fixed in version 1.3.9
2017-07-25: Published

Discovered by dxw:
================
Tom Adams
Please visit security.dxw.com for more information.

_______________________________________________
Sent through the Full Disclosure mailing list
https://nmap.org/mailman/listinfo/fulldisclosure
Web Archives & RSS: http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives