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Jupiter Plugin Flaws Enable Hackers to Hijack Websites

WordPress security researchers have identified a number of flaws that are present in the Jupiter Theme and JupiterX Core plugins.

 

According to WordPress security researchers, the Jupiter Theme and JupiterX Core plugins for the WordPress content management system have a variety of vulnerabilities. A major privilege escalation issue is one of these vulnerabilities. 

Privilege escalation is a malicious method that involves acquiring control of a user's account that would otherwise be inaccessible to the present user by exploiting an app or OS flaw or configuration error. By obtaining these rights, a hostile actor can do a variety of actions on the operating system or server, such as executing instructions or assisting malware infection within the network, which can result in business disruption, sensitive data exposure, or system takeover. This is a violation of privilege. 

As per the source, "This vulnerability allows any authenticated attacker, including a subscriber or customer-level attacker, to gain administrative privileges and completely take over any site running either the Jupiter Theme or JupiterX Core Plugin. The JupiterX Core plugin is required for the JupiterX theme. The classic Jupiter Theme contains a function, uninstallTemplate, which is intended to reset a site after a template is uninstalled, but has the additional effect of elevating the user calling the function to an administrator role. In JupiterX, this functionality has been migrated to the JupiterX Core plugin. Vulnerable versions register AJAX actions but do not perform any capability checks or nonce checks."

"On a site with a vulnerable version of the Jupiter Theme installed, any logged-in user can elevate their privileges to those of an administrator by sending an AJAX request with the action parameter set to abb_uninstall_template. This calls the uninstallTemplate function, which calls the resetWordpressDatabase function, where the site is effectively reinstalled with the currently logged-in user as the new site owner. On a site where a vulnerable version of the JupiterX Core plugin is installed, the same functionality can also be accessed by sending an AJAX request with the action parameter set to jupiterx_core_cp_uninstall_template." 

Jupiter is a powerful and high-quality WordPress theme builder. More than 90,000 well-known blogs, online magazines, and platforms with a high volume of user traffic use it. The vulnerability, which has been issued the tracking number CVE-2022-1654 and a CVSS score of 9.9, allows any authorised user on a website that employs vulnerable plugins to get administrator access (critical). 

After successfully exploiting the flaw, attackers have complete control over the website and may do whatever they want with it. This can include altering the site's content, installing dangerous programmes, or completely deleting the site. The attacker only has to be a simple subscriber or client on the website to exploit this vulnerability; thus, it could be said that the attack does not have strict requirements. 

CVE-2022-1654 affects Jupiter Theme 6.10.1 and older (fixed in 6.10.2), JupiterX Theme 2.0.6 and older (fixed in 2.0.7), and JupiterX Core Plugin 2.0.7 and older (fixed in 2.0.8). To improve the security vulnerabilities, one needs to either update to the latest version or disable the plugin and change the site's theme.
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