CVE-2014-8801

Paid Memberships Pro < 1.7.15 - Directory Traversal

2014-11-14 00:00
Kacper Szurek

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.7.15
Affected Plugin
Paid Memberships Pro – Content Restriction, User Registration, & Paid Subscriptions
Affected Version
< 1.7.15
CVSS
7.5High
Weakness type
CWE-22 · Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
CVE
CVE-2014-8801
View all Paid Memberships Pro – Content Restriction, User Registration, & Paid Subscriptions vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2014-8801 is a high-severity Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in the Paid Memberships Pro WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 1.7.15. It carries a CVSS score of 7.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.7.15; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed November 2014, reported by Kacper Szurek.

Vulnerability Overview

Directory traversal vulnerability in services/getfile.php in the Paid Memberships Pro plugin before 1.7.15 for WordPress allows remote attackers to read arbitrary files via a .. (dot dot) in the QUERY_STRING in a getfile action to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php.

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.

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

Reaching this weakness in Paid Memberships Pro < 1.7.15 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 Paid Memberships Pro the fix is 1.7.15: builds < 1.7.15 are affected, anything from 1.7.15 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.7.15, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Paid Memberships Pro: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Paid Memberships Pro 1.7.15 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-8801https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/8a7e2ad0-8427-450d-aa7e-abdbbc668247https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-8801

Related records

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