Album and Image Gallery with Lightbox – Flagallery Photo Portfolio <= 2.00 - Arbitrary File Modification

2012-12-24 00:00
Janek Vind

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2.10
Affected Plugin
Album and Image Gallery with Lightbox – Flagallery Photo Portfolio
Affected Version
<= 2.00
CVSS
4.9Medium
Weakness type
CWE-22 · Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
CVE
CVE pending
View all Album and Image Gallery with Lightbox – Flagallery Photo Portfolio vulnerabilities

At a glance

This record tracks a medium-severity Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in the Album and Image Gallery with Lightbox WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.00. It carries a CVSS score of 4.9 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high integrity impact). The issue is fixed in version 2.10; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed December 2012, reported by Janek Vind.

Vulnerability Overview

The Album and Image Gallery with Lightbox – Flagallery Photo Portfolio plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary file modification in versions up to, and including, 2.00. This is due to unsanitized user input on the 'settingsXML', and 'mainXML' parameters in the admin/skin_options.php file, and the 'skin_name' and 'mainXML' parameters in the lib/constructor.php file. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with administrator-level permissions and above, to prepend content to any file on the system, which can lead to remote code execution.

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 integrity.

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

Album and Image Gallery with Lightbox <= 2.00 carries this weakness at settingsXML, and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. 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 Album and Image Gallery with Lightbox the fix is 2.10: builds <= 2.00 are affected, anything from 2.10 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.10, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Album and Image Gallery with Lightbox: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Album and Image Gallery with Lightbox 2.10 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/9e21d279-aa83-42ff-9906-bc61dc4aba52

Related records

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