CVE-2017-18501 in social-login-bws Plugin
Summary
by MITRE
The social-login-bws plugin before 0.2 for WordPress has multiple XSS issues.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/23/2023
The CVE-2017-18501 vulnerability affects the social-login-bws plugin version 0.2 and earlier for WordPress, presenting multiple cross-site scripting flaws that could be exploited by malicious actors to execute arbitrary code in the context of a victim's browser. This vulnerability specifically targets the authentication and social login functionality of WordPress websites, making it particularly dangerous as it could compromise user sessions and potentially lead to unauthorized access to sensitive information. The plugin's failure to properly sanitize and validate user input during the social login process creates opportunities for attackers to inject malicious scripts that persist in the application's output.
The technical flaw resides in the plugin's handling of user-provided data within the social authentication flow, where input parameters from external social platforms are not adequately filtered or escaped before being rendered in web pages. This lack of proper input validation and output encoding creates multiple XSS attack vectors that could be leveraged by attackers to inject malicious JavaScript code into the browser context of authenticated users. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-79 as a cross-site scripting weakness, specifically manifesting as stored or reflected XSS depending on how the malicious input is processed and stored within the application's data structures.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution as it could enable attackers to hijack user sessions, steal authentication tokens, or redirect users to malicious websites. Given that the vulnerability affects a widely used plugin, the potential attack surface is significant, particularly for WordPress installations that rely on social login functionality for user authentication. Attackers could exploit this vulnerability to perform session hijacking, access user accounts, or even escalate privileges within the WordPress environment. The reflected nature of some XSS vectors means that attackers could craft malicious URLs that, when clicked by authenticated users, would execute malicious scripts in their browsers without requiring additional user interaction beyond the initial click.
Organizations should immediately upgrade to plugin version 0.2 or later to address this vulnerability, as the patch likely includes proper input sanitization and output encoding mechanisms. Additionally, administrators should implement comprehensive input validation at multiple layers of their web applications, including server-side validation of all user-provided data. Network-level protections such as web application firewalls and content security policies should be configured to detect and prevent XSS attacks, while regular security audits should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other plugins or themes. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1213 which involves data from information repositories, specifically targeting the credential access and persistence phases of the attack lifecycle through compromised authentication mechanisms.