CVE-2023-46637: Missing Authorization Vulnerability in Saurav Sharma's Generate Dummy Posts - Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels

The security update CVE-2023-46637 addresses a missing authorization vulnerability in the widely used Saurav Sharma's Generate Dummy Posts plugin. This vulnerability allows attackers to exploit the improperly configured access control security levels, paving the way for unauthorized users to manipulate and create illegitimate content via the Generate Dummy Posts API. This issue particularly impacts all versions of Generate Dummy Posts from n/a up to and including version 1...

Background on Generate Dummy Posts plugin

Saurav Sharma's Generate Dummy Posts plugin is an efficient and convenient solution for generating multiple posts programmatically in WordPress-based websites. Many web developers utilize this plugin to create various test cases for their applications, making it an essential tool for developing and testing WordPress themes and plugins.

Vulnerability Overview

As revealed in the CVE-2023-46637 vulnerability, the Generate Dummy Posts plugin has a flaw in its access control mechanics that could allow an unauthorized user to generate multiple posts without needing any admin privileges. This vulnerability mainly stems from the absence of the required authorization checks in the code when handling API requests for generating dummy posts, as demonstrated below:

function gdp_create_dummy_posts($post_count=10){
    for($i=1;$i<=$post_count;$i++){
        $title = "Dummy Post Title $i";
        $content = "This is a dummy post, content of post number $i";
        $post_data = array(
            'post_title'    => $title,
            'post_content'  => $content,
            'post_status'   => 'publish',
            'post_type'     => 'post',
        );
        wp_insert_post( $post_data );
    }
}

Original Reference: CVE-2023-46637 - Missing Authorization in Generate Dummy Posts

Exploit Details

The code snippet above shows how the dummy post generation function gdp_create_dummy_posts does not utilize any authorization checks, like current_user_can('manage_options') or wp_verify_nonce(), to ensure that the user has the necessary permissions to perform this action. Thus, exploiting this vulnerability would be as simple as sending API requests to the vulnerable endpoint using curl or other similar tools, as illustrated below:

curl https://victim-site.com/wp-json/generate-dummy-posts/v1/create-posts?post_count=100

In this example, the curl command sends a GET request to the Generate Dummy Posts API endpoint, which could swiftly create 100 dummy posts without confirming whether the user has legitimate access rights.

Mitigation Steps

To effectively address this vulnerability, it is critical to implement proper authorization checks in the Generate Dummy Posts plugin code. The example below demonstrates how to add these checks before processing dummy post generation requests:

function gdp_create_dummy_posts($post_count=10){
    if(!current_user_can('manage_options')){
        wp_send_json_error("You don't have permission to perform this action.");
    }
    for($i=1;$i<=$post_count;$i++){
        // The rest of the code...
    }
}

By introducing the current_user_can('manage_options') check before generating dummy posts, the plugin can effectively block unauthorized users from manipulating content through the Generate Dummy Posts API.

Conclusion

Users and developers are urged to apply the necessary patches to the Generate Dummy Posts plugin as soon as possible to eliminate this vulnerability. By correctly implementing authorization checks, websites can safeguard against unauthorized content manipulation and potential exploits.

Timeline

Published on: 01/02/2025 12:15:14 UTC