When it comes to getting data on vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins there are a number of companies that are interested in making it appear they are generating that type of data without having to do the work it takes to provide that. They instead of reuse data from the WPScan Vulnerability Database, sometimes without disclosing that is the source and in every instance we have seen so far, without providing a warning as the low quality of the data. As example here was what Wordfence’s plugin recently sent out to people using the plugin Sermon Browser:

The Plugin “Sermon Browser” has been removed from wordpress.org.
Current Plugin Version: 0.45.19

Severity: Critical

Vulnerability Information:
https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/6404

Status New

It has unpatched security issues and may have compatibility problems with the current version of WordPress. Get more information.
https://docs.wordfence.com/en/Understanding_scan_results#Plugin_has_been_removed_from_wordpress.org

As we noted previously, the vulnerability being linked there had been fixed six years ago. For whatever reason when it was added to WPScan’s data three years ago it was not listed as being fixed, so when Wordfence reused the data without checking it first they spread inaccurate information. They didn’t include a disclaimer to warn people that they hadn’t checked that data, they even make it sounds like the opposite as they said “It has unpatched security issues”, and therefore didn’t know if it there was any veracity to the claim of a vulnerability in the plugin.

The problem with WPScan’s data isn’t limited fixed vulnerabilities are not correctly labeled as being fixed. Another issue is vulnerabilities that didn’t actually exist being included and labeled as being fixed despite not existing, an example of we just ran across while preparing another post. That could be a problem if you were using WPScan’s data while working on cleaning up a hacked website, since you might believe that you have discovered a likely cause of a hacking, through an outdated plugin, only to later find that wasn’t the case when the website gets hacked again.

This isn’t the first time we have run across this, but what we found notable about this instance is that one of our blog posts is cited despite contradicting their information.

Here is the entry as it is currently:

The claim is that there was an unauthenticated arbitrary file upload vulnerability in the plugin WP Job Manager, which has been fixed. There first reference for that, an entry at Packet Storm from July of last year, makes the claim that there was a remote shell upload/arbitrary file upload vulnerability as of version 1.25. In August of last year we wrote a post detailing why that was false, as the plugin limits what types of files can be uploaded. The plugin did and still does allow anyone to upload files permitted by WordPress.

The third reference cited by WPScan states that:

 Fix: Prevents use of Ajax file upload endpoint for visitors who aren’t logged in.

All that indicates is that those not logged in to WordPress can no longer uploads files through WordPress AJAX functionality, but as we already mentioned the plugin did not allow arbitrary files to be uploaded, so the change does not relate to what they said was fixed.

What is the other important part of this is what was mentioned in the post of ours that was cited:

But more importantly we didn’t understand how the change made was supposed to fix the issue since by default those that didn’t already have a WordPress accounts could still upload images through the plugin.

As the title of our post indicates, “Image Upload Capability in WordPress Plugin Being Abused”, the issue with this plugin was that the ability to upload images was being abused. The change made doesn’t actually remove that capability, it just removes the ability to do that through AJAX. You don’t have to take our word from that, here is what one of the developers said:

Hi there! They shouldn’t be prevented from uploading files, just through the use of the Ajax endpoint. The forms should fallback to normal file uploads and work just fine.

So to recap, the vulnerability that WPScan lists didn’t exist, but if there was a security vulnerability in the plugin, it still exists, just the way it was being abused at the time was removed.

While we think that WPScan’s data is good source for a lot of people because it can be accessed for free, you do get what you pay for. Where its use is more problematic is when it is used by security companies without a proper disclaimer as to the sourcing and quality issues, which also extend to have a limited set of new vulnerabilities in it. If those companies were to admit to all of that, it would probably make more people understand that the inflated claims these companies often make about their expertise are far from the truth. (It would also help us, as once people realize the value of such data, getting better quality data would likely be of more interest to some of them.)