CVE-2015-9419 in captain-slider Plugin
Summary
by MITRE
The captain-slider plugin 1.0.6 for WordPress has XSS via a Title or Caption section.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/27/2023
The CVE-2015-9419 vulnerability represents a cross-site scripting flaw within the captain-slider WordPress plugin version 1.0.6, constituting a critical security weakness that exposes WordPress websites to potential exploitation. This vulnerability specifically targets the plugin's handling of user input in Title and Caption sections, creating an avenue for malicious actors to inject harmful scripts into the web application. The issue stems from insufficient input validation and output sanitization mechanisms within the plugin's codebase, allowing attackers to craft malicious payloads that execute in the context of other users' browsers when they view affected slider elements.
The technical nature of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-79, which categorizes cross-site scripting as a code injection flaw where untrusted data is improperly incorporated into web pages without proper validation or encoding. The vulnerability operates by accepting user-supplied data through the Title and Caption fields of the slider plugin without adequate sanitization, enabling attackers to inject malicious JavaScript code that gets executed when other users browse pages containing the vulnerable slider components. This flaw particularly affects the plugin's rendering process where user inputs are directly embedded into HTML output without proper HTML entity encoding or content security policy enforcement.
The operational impact of CVE-2015-9419 extends beyond simple data theft or defacement, as it enables attackers to execute arbitrary code within the context of authenticated users' browsers. This capability allows threat actors to perform session hijacking, steal cookies, redirect users to malicious sites, or even inject additional malware through the compromised slider elements. The vulnerability affects WordPress websites that utilize the captain-slider plugin, potentially compromising thousands of sites depending on the plugin's adoption rate within the WordPress ecosystem. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to establish persistent access to compromised websites, manipulate content, or use the compromised sites as launching points for broader attacks against visitors or other connected systems.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2015-9419 should prioritize immediate plugin updates to versions that address the XSS vulnerability, as the original 1.0.6 release contained no built-in protections against malicious input. System administrators should implement comprehensive input validation mechanisms that sanitize all user-provided data before processing, particularly focusing on HTML content in fields that support rich text or media captions. Additional defensive measures include implementing content security policies that restrict script execution within the affected areas, enabling proper HTML encoding of all user inputs, and conducting regular security audits of WordPress plugins to identify similar vulnerabilities. Organizations should also consider network-based protections such as web application firewalls that can detect and block malicious payloads targeting known XSS patterns in slider and media management components, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1566 which covers the exploitation of web application vulnerabilities for initial access or privilege escalation.