DefenseCode ThunderScan SAST Advisory
         WordPress Podlove Podcast Publisher Plugin
                 Security Vulnerability


Advisory ID:    DC-2017-05-006
Advisory Title: WordPress Podlove Podcast Publisher Plugin Security
 Vulnerability
Advisory URL:   http://www.defensecode.com/advisories.php
Software:       WordPress Podlove Podcast Publisher plugin
Language:       PHP
Version:        2.5.3 and below
Vendor Status:  Vendor contacted, update released
Release Date:   2017/08/07
Risk:           High



1. General Overview
===================
During the security audit of Podlove Podcast Publisher plugin for
WordPress CMS, security vulnerability was discovered using DefenseCode
ThunderScan application source code security analysis platform.

More information about ThunderScan is available at URL:
http://www.defensecode.com


2. Software Overview
====================
According to the plugin developers, Podlove Podcast Publisher tries to
solve the problem from the podcastersa perspective and implements a
variety of features and workflows that have been rather difficult to
achieve with WordPress until now.

Homepage:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/podlove-podcasting-plugin-for-wordpress/
http://publisher.podlove.org/


3. Vulnerability Description
============================
During the security analysis, ThunderScan discovered SQL injection
vulnerability in Podlove Podcast Publisher WordPress plugin.

The easiest way to reproduce the vulnerability is to visit the
provided URL while being logged in as administrator or another user
that is authorized to access the plugin settings page. Users that do
not have full administrative privileges could abuse the database
access the vulnerability provides to either escalate their privileges
or obtain and modify database contents they were not supposed to be
able to.

Due to the missing nonce token, the attacker the vulnerable code is
also directly exposed to attack vectors such as Cross Site request
forgery (CSRF).


3.1 SQL injection
  Vulnerable Function:  $wpdb->get_results($sql)
  Vulnerable Variable:  $_GET['orderby']
  Vulnerable URL:      
http://vulnerablesite.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=podlove_contributor_settings&order=asc&orderby=gender
AND (SELECT * FROM (SELECT(SLEEP(5)))DefenseCode)
  File: lib\modules\contributors\contributor_list_table.php
  ---------
  176  $orderby = 'ORDER BY ' . esc_sql($_GET['orderby']);
  ...
  203  $data = \Podlove\Modules\Contributors\Model\Contributor::all(
$orderby . ' ' . $order );
  ---------
  File: lib\model\base.php
  ---------
  234  public static function all( $sql_suffix = '' ) {
  235    return self::find_all_by_sql(
  236          'SELECT * FROM ' . static::table_name() . ' ' . $sql_suffix
  237    );
  ...
  548  public static function find_all_by_sql($sql) {
  ...
  554    $rows = $wpdb->get_results($sql); 
  ---------


4. Solution
===========
Vendor resolved the security issues after we reported the
vulnerability. All users are strongly advised to update WordPress
Podlove Podcast Publisher plugin to the latest available version.


5. Credits
==========
Discovered with DefenseCode ThunderScan source code security analyzer
by Neven Biruski.

 
6. Disclosure Timeline
======================
2017/05/31      Vendor contacted
2017/06/05      Update released
2017/08/07      Advisory released to the public


7. About DefenseCode
====================
DefenseCode L.L.C. delivers products and services designed to analyze
and test web, desktop and mobile applications for security
vulnerabilities.

DefenseCode ThunderScan is a SAST (Static Application Security
Testing, WhiteBox Testing) solution for performing extensive security
audits of application source code. ThunderScan SAST performs fast and
accurate analyses of large and complex source code projects delivering
precise results and low false positive rate.

DefenseCode WebScanner is a DAST (Dynamic Application Security
Testing, BlackBox Testing) solution for comprehensive security audits
of active web applications. WebScanner will test a website's security
by carrying out a large number of attacks using the most advanced
techniques, just as a real attacker would.

Subscribe for free software trial on our website
http://www.defensecode.com/ .

E-mail: defensecode[at]defensecode.com

Website: http://www.defensecode.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DefenseCode/