Authorization Bypass in Wallet for WooCommerce Plugin

Executive Summary

The Wallet for WooCommerce plugin for WordPress has an authorization bypass vulnerability in all versions up to and including 1.6.4. This occurs because the plugin does not properly verify whether a user is authorized to perform certain actions.

As a result, authenticated users with subscriber-level access or higher can exploit this flaw to enumerate sensitive information such as login names, email addresses, and user IDs of all WordPress accounts, including administrators, by submitting arbitrary search terms to the AJAX handler.

The vulnerability is facilitated because the required 'search-user' nonce is available on the standard WooCommerce My Account page, which any authenticated user can access, making it easy for subscribers to obtain and exploit.

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability can be detected by monitoring for unauthorized AJAX requests to the Wallet for WooCommerce plugin's user enumeration functionality. Specifically, look for requests that submit arbitrary search terms to the AJAX handler with the 'search-user' nonce parameter.

Since the vulnerability involves authenticated users with subscriber-level access or above, detection can include reviewing logs for unusual or excessive AJAX calls to the wallet_param AJAX endpoint that include the 'search-user' nonce.

Commands to help detect this might include using web server access logs or network monitoring tools to filter for such AJAX requests. For example, using grep on Apache or Nginx logs:

• grep 'wp-admin/admin-ajax.php' /var/log/apache2/access.log | grep 'search-user'
• tcpdump or Wireshark filters to capture HTTP POST requests containing 'search-user' in the payload.

Additionally, monitoring for authenticated user sessions making these requests can help identify exploitation attempts.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability allows attackers with subscriber-level access to gather sensitive user information such as login names, email addresses, and user IDs of all accounts, including administrators.

Such information disclosure can facilitate further attacks like targeted phishing, social engineering, or brute force attacks against privileged accounts.

Although the vulnerability does not allow direct modification or deletion of data, the exposure of user details can compromise the security and privacy of the affected WordPress site.

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Compliance Impact

The vulnerability allows authenticated attackers with subscriber-level access to enumerate login names, email addresses, and user IDs of all WordPress accounts, including administrators. This exposure of personal data could potentially lead to non-compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA, which require proper protection of personal and sensitive information.

Since the plugin does not properly verify user authorization, it risks unauthorized disclosure of user information, which is a violation of principles like data minimization and access control mandated by these standards.

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Mitigation Strategies

The immediate mitigation step is to update the Wallet for WooCommerce plugin to a version later than 1.6.4 where this authorization bypass vulnerability is fixed.

If an update is not immediately possible, restrict access to the WooCommerce My Account page or the AJAX handler to trusted users only, or disable the Wallet for WooCommerce plugin temporarily.

Additionally, monitor user activity for suspicious enumeration attempts and consider implementing additional access controls or web application firewall (WAF) rules to block unauthorized AJAX requests containing the 'search-user' nonce.

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