CVE-2023-5604

Asgaros Forum <= 2.7.0 - Insufficient Authorization to Authenticated (Admin+) Arbitrary File Upload

2023-12-06 00:00
Rafael Aristodimou

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2.7.1
Affected Plugin
Asgaros Forum
Affected Version
< 2.7.1
CVSS
6.6Medium
Weakness type
CWE-434 · Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type
CVE
CVE-2023-5604
View all Asgaros Forum vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2023-5604 is a medium-severity Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type vulnerability in the Asgaros Forum WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 2.7.1. It carries a CVSS score of 6.6 (reachable over the network; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Admin level or above. The issue is fixed in version 2.7.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed December 2023, reported by Rafael Aristodimou.

Vulnerability Overview

The Asgaros Forum plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized control of the plugin's settings due to an insufficient capability check on the forum options update in all versions up to 2.7.1 (exclusive). This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with administrator-level access and above, to modify the plugin's settings so that they can upload malicious PHP files that can be used for remote code execution.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-434: Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type

Reaching this weakness in Asgaros Forum < 2.7.1 takes an account at Admin level or above. An unrestricted file upload lets a caller store a file whose type or destination the application does not properly constrain.

If an uploaded file lands anywhere the server will execute, the flaw becomes remote code execution and the site should be treated as fully compromised. For Asgaros Forum the fix is 2.7.1: builds < 2.7.1 are affected, anything from 2.7.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.7.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Admin access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: 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: Asgaros Forum 2.7.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Scanner
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-5604https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/63b472fb-c853-4e56-b34c-3cf986c4cf80https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-5604

Related records

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