24 May 2019

Internet Explorer Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Vulnerability in Analytics Code Integration (Analytics)

As part of our keeping track of the possible closure of popular WordPress plugins due to security vulnerabilities, so that we can warn customers of our service ahead of hacker exploiting vulnerabilities those closures might shine a light on, we were notified that the plugin Analytics Code Integration (Analytics), which has 30,000+ installs, was closed today. No reason has been given for the closure. There was a claim 8 months ago that there were security issues in the plugin and the plugin hasn’t been updated since that occurred. In quickly looking over the plugin we found a very minor vulnerability, what we refer to as an Internet Explorer reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability.

In the files /notice_pro_get.php and /pro_get.php the following line of code exist in a couple of locations:

<input type="hidden" name="refer" value="<?php echo 'http' . (isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) ? 's' : '') . '://' . rtrim($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'], '/')."/" . ltrim($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], '/'); ?>">

That will output values from the URL that is being visited without it being escaped. Including malicious JavaScript in the portion of the URL that makes up the value of $_SERVER[‘REQUEST_URI’] there could potentially lead to cross-site scripting (XSS). But as far as we are aware all major web browsers other than Internet Explorer encode the value of that, so there wouldn’t work in other web browsers at all. Internet Explorer has XSS filtering, which would need to be bypassed for this to be exploitable.

Proof of Concept

The following proof of concept will cause any available cookies to be shown in an alert box in Internet Explorer with its XSS filtering disabled, when logged in as an Administrator.

Make sure to replace “[path to WordPress]” with the location of WordPress.

http://[path to WordPress]/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=ga_tc_settings&test="><script>alert(document.cookie);</

Concerned About The Security of the Plugins You Use?

When you are a paying customer of our service, you can suggest/vote for the WordPress plugins you use to receive a security review from us. You can start using the service for free when you sign up now. We also offer security reviews of WordPress plugins as a separate service.

Need Continued Support for a Closed Plugin?

Does your website depend on a WordPress plugin that is no longer being supported by the original developer? With our Abandoned WordPress Plugin Maintenance Service, we can maintain the plugin for you, so you can safely use the plugin going forward.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.