Headline
Two New Security Flaws Reported in Ghost CMS Blogging Software
Cybersecurity researchers have detailed two security flaws in the JavaScript-based blogging platform known as Ghost, one of which could be abused to elevate privileges via specially crafted HTTP requests. Tracked as CVE-2022-41654 (CVSS score: 8.5), the authentication bypass vulnerability that allows unprivileged users (i.e., members) to make unauthorized modifications to newsletter settings.
Website Security / Vulnerability
Cybersecurity researchers have detailed two security flaws in the JavaScript-based blogging platform known as Ghost, one of which could be abused to elevate privileges via specially crafted HTTP requests.
Tracked as CVE-2022-41654 (CVSS score: 8.5), the authentication bypass vulnerability that allows unprivileged users (i.e., members) to make unauthorized modifications to newsletter settings.
Cisco Talos, which discovered the shortcoming, said it could enable a member to change the system-wide default newsletter that all users are subscribed to by default.
“This gives unprivileged users the ability to view and change settings they were not intended to have access to,” Ghost noted in an advisory published on November 28, 2022. “They are not able to escalate their privileges permanently or get access to further information.”
The CMS platform blamed the bug due to a “gap” in its API validation, adding it found no evidence that the issue has been exploited in the wild.
Also patched by Ghost is an enumeration vulnerability in the login functionality (CVE-2022-41697, CVSS score: 5.3) that could lead to the disclosure of sensitive information.
Per Talos, this flaw could be leveraged by an attacker to enumerate all valid users of Ghost by supplying an email address, which could then be used to narrow down potential targets for a next-stage phishing attack.
The flaws have been addressed in the Ghost (Pro) managed hosting service, but users who self-host the service and run a version between 4.46.0 and 4.48.7 or any version of v5 up to and including 5.22.6 are required to update to versions 4.48.8 and 5.22.7.
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An authentication bypass vulnerability exists in the newsletter subscription functionality of Ghost Foundation Ghost 5.9.4. A specially-crafted HTTP request can lead to increased privileges. An attacker can send an HTTP request to trigger this vulnerability.
A user enumeration vulnerability exists in the login functionality of Ghost Foundation Ghost 5.9.4. A specially-crafted HTTP request can lead to a disclosure of sensitive information. An attacker can send a series of HTTP requests to trigger this vulnerability.
Dave McDaniel and other members of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Cisco Talos recently discovered two vulnerabilities in Ghost CMS, one authentication bypass vulnerability and one enumeration vulnerability. Ghost is a content management system with tools to build a website, publish content and send newsletters. Ghost offers paid subscriptions to
Dave McDaniel and other members of Cisco Talos discovered these vulnerabilities. Cisco Talos recently discovered two vulnerabilities in Ghost CMS, one authentication bypass vulnerability and one enumeration vulnerability. Ghost is a content management system with tools to build a website, publish content and send newsletters. Ghost offers paid subscriptions to
### Impact On sites where members is enabled (this is the default) it is possible for members (unprivileged users) to make changes to newsletter settings. This gives unprivileged users the ability to view and change settings they were not intended to have access to. They are not able to escalate their privileges permanently or get access to further information. This issue was caused by a gap in our API validation for nested objects. Ghost(Pro) has already been patched. We can find no evidence that the issue was exploited on Ghost(Pro) prior to the patch being added. Self-hosters are impacted if running Ghost a version between v4.46.0 and v4.48.7 or any version of v5 prior to v5.22.7. Immediate action should be taken to secure your site - see patches & workarounds below. ### Patches - v4.48.8 / v5.22.7 are patched for all known exploits - v4.48.9 / v5.24.1 contain deeper fixes to the API to close the potential for this vulnerability to appear elsewhere or regress ### Workarounds...