Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- adminer
- Affected Version
<= 1.4.5- CVSS
- 9.8Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-284 · Improper Access Control
- CVE
CVE-2017-20066
At a glance
CVE-2017-20066 is a critical-severity Improper Access Control vulnerability in the adminer WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.4.5. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed March 2017, reported by David Vaartjes.
Vulnerability Overview
The Adminer plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass due to a missing capability check on the adminer_load_editor() function in versions up to, and including, 1.4.5. This makes it possible for unauthenticated (no login required) attackers to access any database associated with the vulnerable WordPress server.
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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-284: Improper Access Control
adminer <= 1.4.5 carries this weakness at adminer_load_editor(), and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Improper access control means the code decides what a caller may do using something other than their actual permissions, so the decision can be wrong without any check appearing to be missing.
Whoever can shape the request decides the answer, so the protected action runs for callers the code never meant to allow. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for adminer yet, so installs running <= 1.4.5 stay exposed until the vendor ships one.
Remediation
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
How does WordSec protect against this?
Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in adminer
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