WordPress GTranslate Open Redirect Scanner

The WordPress GTranslate plugin is a widely used translation tool for WordPress websites, facilitating multilingual content management. It is employed by website owners and administrators to provide automatically translated content to their audience, enhancing accessibility and user engagement. Many businesses and individual website proprietors use it to broaden their reach to non-native speaking audiences, thus increasing their global presence. GTranslate plugin, a pivotal part of WordPress’s diverse plugin ecosystem, supports automatic translation through Google’s translate API. The plugin’s seamless integration with WordPress makes it a preferred choice for beginners and advanced users alike. It significantly boosts a website's utility by removing language barriers.

An Open Redirect vulnerability allows attackers to redirect users to malicious sites by exploiting redirection mechanisms in software. The detection of this vulnerability in WordPress GTranslate plugin indicates a possibility for malicious redirections, putting user information at risk. Such vulnerabilities can often be manipulated without user consent, leading victims to fraudulent or harmful sites. Open Redirect vulnerabilities can be particularly dangerous when used in phishing attacks, effectively disguising the harmful requests as legitimate. Detecting this vulnerability is crucial as it helps maintain the integrity and trustworthiness of affected websites. Ensuring no unauthorized redirection occurs is vital for user data security and privacy.

The vulnerable endpoint identified in the WordPress GTranslate plugin involves the gtranslate.php script accessible via URL parameters. Specifically, the 'gurl' parameter is inadequately validated, allowing maliciously crafted inputs to manipulate user navigation. The vulnerability exploits the absence of proper checks on URL input, leading to potential redirection to external, attacker-controlled domains. Studies show that open redirects can be further used in chained attacks, increasing their severity. Proper URL validation, escaping, and whitelisting practices were missing at the time, which necessitated this plugin's scrutiny for Open Redirect issues. The technical misconfiguration here lies in insufficient input validation mechanisms within the plugin's redirection functionality.

If exploited, the Open Redirect vulnerability could lead to severe consequences including phishing attacks, leakage of credentials, and unauthorized execution of operations within user sessions. Users might be redirected to sites mimicking legitimate ones to harvest sensitive information like login details or personal data. Continued exploitation could harm the reputation and reliability of a website, leading to loss of user trust and reduced traffic. Attackers can employ it as a part of broader hacking strategies, combining it with other vulnerabilities to escalate their privileges or further exploit user interactions. The overall security posture of affected systems could deteriorate significantly, emphasizing the importance of addressing this vulnerability swiftly.

REFERENCES

• https://www.pluginvulnerabilities.com/2017/02/17/open-redirect-vulnerability-in-gtranslate/