CIP Cyber

WordPress 4.0.1 Released to Address Vulnerabilities and Cross-Site Scripting Flaw

Table of Contents

The critical security release addresses a serious cross-site scripting (XSS) bug identified and reported by Jouko Pynnonen of the Finland-based IT company Klikki Oy on September 26. The vulnerability affects WordPress 3.9.2 and earlier versions which, according to the latest statistics from WordPress, account for nearly 86% of installations. WordPress 4.0, released in early September 2014, is not affected. 

“An attacker could exploit the vulnerability by entering carefully crafted comments, containing program code, on WordPress blog posts and pages. Under default settings comments can be entered by anyone without authentication (login),” Klikki Oy said in a press release. “Program code injected in comments would be inadvertently executed in the blog administrator’s web browser when they view the comment. The rogue code could then perform administrative operations by covertly taking over the administered account.”

A proof-of-concept published by the company shows that an attacker can exploit the vulnerability to create new administrator accounts, change the password of the current administrator, and execute arbitrary PHP code on the server.

“Exploitability without login, under default settings, and the server-side impact make this probably the most serious WordPress core vulnerability that has been reported since 2009,” Klikki Oy said.

Technical details on the critical XSS vulnerability are available in an advisory published by the Finnish company on November 20.

Millions of WordPress sites around the web are being updated to 4.0.1 right now and older releases will be updated to 3.9.3, 3.8.5, or 3.7.5, as outlined in Andrew Nacin’s security release announcement. If you don’t want to wait for the automatic update, you can always go to Dashboard → Updates in the admin and update immediately.

The security update also fixes 23 flaws from the WordPress 4.0 version among others.

Read Full article at SECURITYWEEK

CIP Cyber Staff

CIP Cyber Staff

CIP Cyber Staff comprises CIP cybersecurity experts committed to delivering comprehensive information on critical infrastructure protection. The content covers diverse topics, equipping professionals to defend organizations and communities in an ever-evolving cyber landscape.

Most popular

Industrial Cybersecurity

Want always be up to date?

Don't miss the latest news

By subscribing to our mailing list, you will be enrolled to receive our new trainings, latest blog posts, product news, and more.

CIP Training & Certifications

Transform your cybersecurity skills with CIP Cyber’s comprehensive training & course offerings

Related Articles

Improving WordPress Security in 2021

What Is WordPress? WordPress is a PHP-based content management system that may be used in conjunction with MySQL. The best part about WordPress is that

Recovering A Hacked WordPress Site

WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems. More than ⅓ of websites use it, and it’s easy to see why. WordPress is

Want always be up to date?

Don't miss the latest news

By subscribing to our mailing list, you will be enrolled to receive our new trainings, latest blog posts, product news, and more.

CIP Training & Certifications

Transform your cybersecurity skills with CIP Cyber’s comprehensive training & course offerings