CVE-2007-3288 in Automattic Stats
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the skeltoac stats (Automattic Stats) 1.0 plugin for WordPress allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the HTTP Referer field.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/28/2017
The CVE-2007-3288 vulnerability represents a classic cross-site scripting flaw within the Automattic Stats plugin version 1.0 for WordPress systems. This security weakness specifically targets the plugin's handling of HTTP Referer headers, creating an avenue for remote attackers to execute malicious code within the context of users' browsers. The vulnerability exists because the plugin fails to properly sanitize or escape user-supplied input from the Referer header before processing it for display within the plugin's administrative interface or statistics reporting features.
The technical implementation of this XSS vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output sanitization within the plugin's codebase. When WordPress processes requests containing malicious Referer values, the Automattic Stats plugin directly incorporates this unfiltered data into generated HTML content without appropriate encoding or escaping mechanisms. This primitive approach to handling user input creates a persistent security gap that attackers can exploit to inject arbitrary JavaScript code, HTML tags, or other malicious payloads. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because the Referer header is automatically populated by web browsers during HTTP requests, making it an easily accessible vector for exploitation.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to WordPress installations using the affected plugin. Attackers can leverage this XSS flaw to perform various malicious activities including session hijacking, cookie theft, defacement of statistics pages, or redirection to malicious websites. The impact extends beyond simple data corruption as the vulnerability can be used to establish persistent backdoors within the affected WordPress environment. Users who access the plugin's statistics dashboard become unwitting participants in executing attacker-controlled code, potentially compromising their browser sessions and exposing sensitive administrative information. This vulnerability undermines the trust model of web applications by allowing unauthorized code execution in the context of legitimate user sessions.
The security implications of CVE-2007-3288 align with CWE-79, which categorizes cross-site scripting vulnerabilities as weaknesses in input validation and output encoding. This classification reflects the fundamental flaw in the plugin's architecture where user-controllable data enters the application without proper sanitization before being rendered to end users. The vulnerability also maps to ATT&CK technique T1059.007, which describes the use of scripting languages for execution within web applications. Organizations affected by this vulnerability should implement immediate mitigations including disabling the vulnerable plugin, applying security patches, and monitoring web server logs for suspicious Referer header patterns. Additionally, web application firewalls and input validation rules should be configured to sanitize Referer header values, while regular security audits should verify that similar vulnerabilities do not exist in other plugin components or themes within the WordPress ecosystem.