[buddypress-trac] [BuddyPress] #2445: Wordpress Core Ticket #13866 Allows User Impersonation in BuddyPress

buddypress-trac at lists.automattic.com buddypress-trac at lists.automattic.com
Wed Jun 16 02:25:40 UTC 2010


#2445: Wordpress Core Ticket #13866 Allows User Impersonation in BuddyPress
----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  foxly     |       Owner:                                              
     Type:  defect    |      Status:  new                                         
 Priority:  major     |   Milestone:  1.3                                         
Component:  XProfile  |    Keywords:  spoof, display_name, impersonation, XProfile
----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------
 SUMMARY

 As outlined in http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/13866 the WordPress
 core does not check for duplicate entries in wp_users.display_name

 As a result, users can enter any text string they want, including things
 like "Admin", "System", or an existing user's login or display name in
 Profile->Edit Profile->Name and it will display across the entire BP
 installation.

 Unfortunately, the "Name" field cannot be disabled in the extended
 profiles module, and if a value is present in the field, the system uses
 it by default.

 TO REPRODUCE

 1) Sign up two new users in BuddyPress.
 2) Enter "Admin" in the name field for each user, and click "Save"
 3) The system now has two new "Admin" users.

 Note that this only gives the attacker the *name* "Admin", it does not
 give them the same system rights as admin.

 The exception is if there is code anywhere in BuddyPress that uses an SQL
 statement like "SELECT ID FROM " . CUSTOM_USER_TABLE . " WHERE
 display_name = %s".

 I've attached a screen capture illustrating the problem.

 TO FIX

 1) Don't use display_name
 2) or, when writing to display_name ensure the written value does not
 match the display_name or user_login value for an existing user on the
 system.

 ^F^

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://trac.buddypress.org/ticket/2445>
BuddyPress <http://buddypress.org/>
BuddyPress


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