Cyclone Slider <= 3.2.0 - Authenticated (Admin+) Arbitrary File Upload
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- Cyclone Slider
- Affected Version
<= 3.2.0- CVSS
- 7.2High
- Weakness type
- CWE-434 · Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type
- CVE
CVE pending
At a glance
This record tracks a high-severity Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type vulnerability in the Cyclone Slider WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.2.0. It carries a CVSS score of 7.2 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Admin level or above. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed August 2022.
Vulnerability Overview
The Cyclone Slider Plugin is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution via the slider import functionality in versions up to, and including, 3.2.0, due to the use of the 'createfromimage' function as the sole method of validating file type. This allows authenticated users with administrative privileges to upload and extract zip files containing polyglot PHP webshells that are also valid images.
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 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
Cyclone Slider <= 3.2.0 carries this weakness at createfromimage, and reaching it 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. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for Cyclone Slider yet, so installs running <= 3.2.0 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?
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. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Firewall
- Scanner
- Alerts
External References
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C