CVE-2019-25213

Advanced Access Manager <= 5.9.8.1 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Read

2019-09-09 00:00
Ov3rfly

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 5.9.9
Affected Plugin
Advanced Access Manager – Access Governance for WordPress
Affected Version
< 5.9.9
CVSS
9.8Critical
Weakness type
CWE-22 · Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
CVE
CVE-2019-25213
View all Advanced Access Manager – Access Governance for WordPress vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2019-25213 is a critical-severity Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in the Advanced Access Manager WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 5.9.9. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 5.9.9; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2019, reported by Ov3rfly.

Vulnerability Overview

The Advanced Access Manager plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Read in versions up to, and including, 5.9.8.1 due to insufficient validation on the aam-media parameter. This allows unauthenticated attackers to read any file on the server, including sensitive files such as wp-config.php

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-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

Reaching this weakness in Advanced Access Manager < 5.9.9 takes no account at all. Path traversal happens when user-controlled text is used to build a filesystem path without being constrained to an intended directory, so sequences like ../ walk the resolved path somewhere else.

Depending on the operation, it means reading files outside the intended folder — wp-config.php being the usual target — or writing to and deleting paths the web server can touch. For Advanced Access Manager the fix is 5.9.9: builds < 5.9.9 are affected, anything from 5.9.9 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 5.9.9, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Advanced Access Manager 5.9.9 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-25213https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/55e0f0df-7be2-4e18-988c-2cc558768effhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-25213

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C