CVE-2014-4940

Tera Charts < 1.0 - Directory Traversal

2014-05-28 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 1.0
Affected Plugin: Tera Charts
Affected Version: <= 0.1
CVSS: 7.5High
Weakness type: CWE-22 · Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
CVE: CVE-2014-4940

At a glance

CVE-2014-4940 is a high-severity Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in the Tera Charts WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 0.1. 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 1.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2014, reported by Anant Shrivastava (anantshri).

Vulnerability Overview

Multiple directory traversal vulnerabilities in Tera Charts (tera-charts) plugin 0.1 for WordPress allow remote attackers to read arbitrary files via a .. (dot dot) in the fn parameter to (1) charts/treemap.php or (2) charts/zoomabletreemap.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 Tera Charts <= 0.1 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 Tera Charts the fix is 1.0: builds <= 0.1 are affected, anything from 1.0 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.0, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Tera Charts: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Tera Charts 1.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-4940 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/6bcc353f-cdf2-4e28-a0e0-ad149ecb1c3b https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-4940

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in Tera Charts

6.1CVE-2016-1000151: Tera Charts <= 1.0 Reflected Cross-Site ScriptingCVE-2016-1000151

CVSS Vector

7.5

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityNone
AvailabilityNone

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