Flaws in Popular SEO plug-in put WordPress websites at risk

All in One SEO Pack

[Brett_Tabke]

Researchers from Web security firm Sucuri found two flaws in a plug-in called “All in One SEO Pack” that potentially allow attackers with access to non-administrative WordPress accounts to elevate their privileges and inject malicious code into the administration panel.

[pcworld.com...]

WordPress site administrators are advised to upgrade the “All in One SEO Pack” plug-in to version 2.1.6 which was released Sunday in the WordPress add-ons repository. An update can also be initiated from the plug-in’s administration panel.

The flaws allowed hackers to launch privilege escalation and cross site scripting attacks against vulnerable sites running old versions below 2.1.6. The plugin has been downloaded nearly 19 million times.

[theregister.co.uk...]

[lorax]

Nice find Brett. It pays to keep tabs on the security blogs.

[martinibuster]

Here's what's on Twitter from the creator of All In One SEO Pack:

Michael Torbert @michaeltorbert ·
Jun 1
Watching @pbaylies from @semperfidev talk about debugging your WordPress at WordCamp Asheville #wcavl

Here is what's on Yoast's Twitter stream:

Joost de Valk @yoast - Jun 1

Now might be a good time to remind you that WP SEO has a built-in import feature for All In One SEO Pack. Just switch :-)

Who do you think is on the ball?

[Brett_Tabke]

Nice promo martinibuster. You a Yoast affiliate? ;-) lol

[martinibuster]

Ha! Nope, no way. Omg, my leg's been pulled. :P Actually I'm anti-SEO packs. I just don't see the point of it.

I was checking the All in One WP download page to see which of the two it was, Yoast or the other one. Saw a link to the twitter page for the creator of it and was shocked to see he had nothing on his twitter stream on it.

Kiss of death with Matt Cutts tweeting about it.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

There is no addon or pack out there that can do a better job than applying changes manually to your own themes, the only limit is your knowledge and imagination.

I've disliked Wordpress's approach of saying "the SEO is fine" when guys like Matt Cutts and places like Webmaster Tools tell you that you should probably modify your titles etc. If Wordpress covered the basics then there would be less need for addons and modifications. It's time, wordpress.

[lorax]

MT might be handling it and doing damage control by not talking about it. Not saying that's a good idea but that is how some people handle such things.

>> I just don't see the point of it.

Bingo. I'm testing Yoast's on one of my sites and I think it actually does more harm than good.

[ogletree]

I stopped using that last year when I was told there was a problem with it. I can't find it but I do remember being told about this same problem in 2013.