W3 Total Cache <= 2.9.3 - Unauthenticated Security Token Exposure via User-Agent Header
- Published
- Last modified
- Where the record stands: published, rejected by its publisher, or superseded by another id.What do these mean? →
- published
- Whether CISA lists it in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog: proof that attackers are using it.What do these mean? →
- Not listed in CISA KEV
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- 1 Nuclei template
- Exploitation: none
- Automatable: yes
- Technical impact: partial
Summary
The W3 Total Cache plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to information exposure in all versions up to, and including, 2.9.3. This is due to the plugin bypassing its entire output buffering and processing pipeline when the request's User-Agent header contains "W3 Total Cache", which causes raw mfunc/mclude dynamic fragment HTML comments — including the W3TC_DYNAMIC_SECURITY security token — to be rendered in the page source. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to discover the value of the W3TC_DYNAMIC_SECURITY constant by sending a crafted User-Agent header to any page that contains developer-placed dynamic fragment tags, granted the site has the fragment caching feature enabled. With the leaked W3TC_DYNAMIC_SECURITY token, an attacker can craft valid mfunc tags to execute arbitrary PHP code on the server, achieving remote code execution.
Timeline
- CVE published
- CISA SSVC assessment
Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial
- Record last updated
Affected versions
- boldgrid W3 Total Cache
through 2.9.3