CVE-2015-9538

NextGen Gallery <= 2.1.10 - Local File Inclusion

2015-08-28 00:00
Sathish Kumar

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2.1.15
Affected Plugin
Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery
Affected Version
<= 2.1.10
CVSS
6.5Medium
Weakness type
CWE-98 · Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion')
CVE
CVE-2015-9538
View all Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2015-9538 is a medium-severity Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program ('PHP Remote File Inclusion') vulnerability in the Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.1.10. It carries a CVSS score of 6.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality impact). The issue is fixed in version 2.1.15; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2015, reported by Sathish Kumar.

Vulnerability Overview

The NextGEN Gallery plugin before 2.1.15 for WordPress allows ../ Directory Traversal in path selection.

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.

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

Reaching this weakness in Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes <= 2.1.10 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 Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes the fix is 2.1.15: builds <= 2.1.10 are affected, anything from 2.1.15 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.1.15, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes: 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: Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes 2.1.15 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Scanner
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-9538https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/255cdf64-93cd-434c-9a3c-3b8e49593ffehttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-9538

Related records

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