A A A A A A A A A A A A A  DefenseCode ThunderScan SAST Advisory
A A A A A A A A  WordPress Ad Widget Plugin Local File Inclusion
A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A  Security Vulnerability


Advisory ID:A A A  DC-2017-01-001
Advisory Title: WordPress Ad Widget Plugin Local file Inclusion
A Security Vulnerability
Advisory URL:A A  https://www.defensecode.com/advisories.php
Software:A A A A A A  WordPress Ad Widget plugin
Language:A A A A A A  PHP
Version:A A A A A A A  2.10.0 and below
Vendor Status:A  Vendor contacted, update released
Release Date:A A  2017/10/10
Risk:A A A A A A A A A A  Medium



1. General Overview
===================
During the security audit of Ad Widget plugin for WordPress CMS,
security vulnerability was discovered using DefenseCode ThunderScan
application source code security analysis platform.

More information about ThunderScan is available at URL:
https://www.defensecode.com


2. Software Overview
====================
According to the plugin developers, Ad Widget enables it's users to
easily upload ad images and ad code to their sidebar, for those that
don't need or want a complicated ad management system.

According to wordpress.org, it has more than 30,000 active installs.

Homepage:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/ad-widget/
https://github.com/broadstreetads/wordpress-ad-widget
https://broadstreetads.com/about/contact/
A A A A A A A 

3. Vulnerability Description
============================
During the security analysis, ThunderScan discovered Local File
Inclusion vulnerability in WP Ad Widget plugin. By requesting a
specially crafted URL, the attacker can cause remote server to execute
a php file of his choosing. Although the user requesting the URL has
to be logged into the WordPress administrative console, the attacker
can cause the administrator to request such a URL by using various
social engineering/phishing approaches. Specified file will be
interpreted by php interpreter, and any valid php code will indeed be
executed. If the php installation on server has "allow_url_include=1"
configuration option set, this attack can be expanded to execute a php
file from any remote URL. If the php version is less than 5.3.4, the
".php" that gets appended to the end of the file name attacker chose
can be omitted by adding a null character ("%00") to the requested
URL, and enable the attacker to execute any file, regardless of the
extension.

3.1. Local File Inclusion
A  File:A A A A A A  ad-widget\views\modal\index.php
A  Fucntion:A A  require "$page.php";
A  Variable:A A  $_GET['step'];
A  Sample URL:
https://vulnerablesite.com/wp-content/plugins/ad-widget/views/modal/?step=../../../../../../../etc/passwd%00
A  File: ad-widget\views\modal\index.php
A A A  ---------
A A A  38A  $page = @$_GET['step'];
A A A  ...
A A A  68A  require "$page.php";
A A A  ---------
A 

4. Solution
===========
Vendor thanked us and notified us the security issue was fixed after
we reported it. All users are strongly advised to update WordPress
Ad Widget plugin to the latest available version.


5. Credits
==========
Discovered by Neven Biruski using DefenseCode ThunderScan source code
security analyzer.

A 
6. Disclosure Timeline
======================
2017/03/28A A A A A  Vendor contacted
2017/04/04A A A A A  Vendor responded
2017/04/04A A A A A  Update released
2017/10/10A A A A A  Advisory released to the public


7. About DefenseCode
====================
DefenseCode L.L.C. delivers products and services designed to analyze
and test web, desktop and mobile applications for security
vulnerabilities.

DefenseCode ThunderScan is a SAST (Static Application Security
Testing, WhiteBox Testing) solution for performing extensive security
audits of application source code. ThunderScan SAST performs fast and
accurate analyses of large and complex source code projects delivering
precise results and low false positive rate.

DefenseCode WebScanner is a DAST (Dynamic Application Security
Testing, BlackBox Testing) solution for comprehensive security audits
of active web applications. WebScanner will test a website's security
by carrying out a large number of attacks using the most advanced
techniques, just as a real attacker would.

Subscribe for free software trial on our website
https://www.defensecode.com/ .

E-mail: defensecode[at]defensecode.com

Website: https://www.defensecode.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DefenseCode/