CVE-2011-3981

AllWebMenus WordPress Menu Plugin <= 1.1.3 - Remote File Inclusion

2011-09-19 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 1.1.4
Affected Plugin: AllWebMenus WordPress Menu Plugin
Affected Version: <= 1.1.3
CVSS: 9.8Critical
Weakness type: CWE-98 · Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion')
CVE: CVE-2011-3981

View all AllWebMenus WordPress Menu Plugin vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2011-3981 is a critical-severity Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion') vulnerability in the AllWebMenus WordPress Menu Plugin WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.1.3. 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 1.1.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2011, reported by Ben Schmidt.

Vulnerability Overview

PHP remote file inclusion vulnerability in actions.php in the Allwebmenus plugin 1.1.3 for WordPress allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary PHP code via a URL in the abspath parameter.

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-98: Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion')

Reaching this weakness in AllWebMenus WordPress Menu Plugin <= 1.1.3 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. PHP file inclusion means a path used by include or require is built from request data, so the file that gets executed is under the caller's influence.

Including an attacker-influenced file executes its contents, which is why this class is routinely chained with an upload or log-poisoning step to reach code execution. For AllWebMenus WordPress Menu Plugin the fix is 1.1.4: builds <= 1.1.3 are affected, anything from 1.1.4 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.1.4, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to AllWebMenus WordPress Menu Plugin: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: AllWebMenus WordPress Menu Plugin 1.1.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Scanner
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2011-3981 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/45b6a72a-9aa9-4d77-b250-575d55538110 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2011-3981

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in AllWebMenus WordPress Menu Plugin

CVSS Vector

9.8

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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