File Manager Advanced Shortcode WordPress <= 2.3.2 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Upload to Remote Code Execution via Shortcode
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.4
- Affected Plugin
- File Manager Advanced Shortcode
- Affected Version
<= 2.3.2- CVSS
- 9.8Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
- CVE
CVE-2023-2068
At a glance
CVE-2023-2068 is a critical-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the File Manager Advanced Shortcode WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.3.2. 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 2.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2023, reported by Mateus Machado Tesser (F0x).
Vulnerability Overview
The File Manager Advanced Shortcode WordPress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to remote code execution in versions up to, and including, 2.3.2. This is due to the plugin allowing users to upload PHP files when the shortcode has been added to a page/post. This makes it possible for unauthenticated users to potentially upload malicious PHP files if the shortcode is used on the front-end of the site, and makes it possible for authenticated users with access to a post editor to add the shortcode to a page or post and subsequently upload a malicious file.
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-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
Reaching this weakness in File Manager Advanced Shortcode <= 2.3.2 takes no account at all. Code injection means input from a request reaches a language construct that evaluates code, so the attacker's text is executed rather than treated as data.
The injected code runs with the web server's privileges, giving the attacker the same access to the database and filesystem as WordPress itself. For File Manager Advanced Shortcode the fix is 2.4: builds <= 2.3.2 are affected, anything from 2.4 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.4, 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. 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: File Manager Advanced Shortcode 2.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Scanner
- Login Security
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in File Manager Advanced Shortcode
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C