CVE-2009-2432

WordPress Core & WordPress MU < 2.8.1 - Full Path Disclosure

2009-09-08 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.8.1
Affected Core: WordPress 2.8
Affected Version: <= 2.8
CVSS: 5.3Medium
Weakness type: CWE-200 · Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
CVE: CVE-2009-2432

At a glance

CVE-2009-2432 is a medium-severity Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor vulnerability in the WordPress 2.8 WordPress release line, affecting <= 2.8. It carries a CVSS score of 5.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.8.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2009.

Vulnerability Overview

WordPress and WordPress MU before 2.8.1 allow remote attackers to obtain sensitive information via a direct request to wp-settings.php, which reveals the installation path in an error message.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user.

CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

Reaching this weakness in WordPress 2.8 <= 2.8 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Sensitive information exposure means data the application intended to keep internal is returned to a caller who should not be able to see it.

The disclosed data — credentials, tokens, customer records or internal paths — is usually worth more as material for a follow-up attack than as an end in itself. For WordPress 2.8 the fix is 2.8.1: builds <= 2.8 are affected, anything from 2.8.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.8.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The fix is the thing that ends this: updating to 2.8.1 is the step that ends it.

Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2009-2432 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/79ea853e-9d1d-4be0-8fd4-a80a924018ae https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2009-2432

Related records

Same weakness class

Other vulnerabilities in WordPress 2.8

CVSS Vector

5.3

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityNone
AvailabilityNone

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