CVE-2021-4225

SP Project & Document Manager <= 4.23 - Subscriber+ Arbitrary File Upload

2021-07-28 00:00
pang0lin

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 4.24
Affected Plugin
SP Project & Document Manager
Affected Version
< 4.24
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-434 · Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type
CVE
CVE-2021-4225
View all SP Project & Document Manager vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-4225 is a high-severity Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type vulnerability in the SP Project & Document Manager WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 4.24. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). The issue is fixed in version 4.24; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2021, reported by pang0lin.

Vulnerability Overview

The SP Project & Document Manager WordPress plugin before 4.24 allows any authenticated users, such as subscribers, to upload files. The plugin attempts to prevent PHP and other similar files that could be executed on the server from being uploaded by checking the file extension. It was discovered that on Windows servers, the security checks in place were insufficient, enabling bad actors to potentially upload backdoors on vulnerable sites.

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

Reaching this weakness in SP Project & Document Manager < 4.24 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. 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. For SP Project & Document Manager the fix is 4.24: builds < 4.24 are affected, anything from 4.24 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 4.24, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to SP Project & Document Manager: 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: SP Project & Document Manager 4.24 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Scanner
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-4225https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/3b1b60f4-39f7-4981-bd8d-b1c6e63cf082https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-4225

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C