Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.0.40
- Affected Plugin
- Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin
- Affected Version
<= 2.0.39- CVSS
- 4.3Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-22 · Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
- CVE
CVE-2018-0588
At a glance
CVE-2018-0588 is a medium-severity Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in the Ultimate Member WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.0.39. It carries a CVSS score of 4.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The issue is fixed in version 2.0.40; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2018, reported by Gen Sato.
Vulnerability Overview
Directory traversal vulnerability in the AJAX function of Ultimate Member plugin prior to version 2.0.4 for WordPress allows remote attackers to read arbitrary files via unspecified vectors.
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.
CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
Reaching this weakness in Ultimate Member <= 2.0.39 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 Ultimate Member the fix is 2.0.40: builds <= 2.0.39 are affected, anything from 2.0.40 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.0.40, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Ultimate Member: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Ultimate Member 2.0.40 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
Other vulnerabilities in Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin
- 10.0CVE-2020-36157: Ultimate Member <= 2.1.11 Privilege Escalation
CVE-2020-36157 - 10.0CVE-2020-36155: Ultimate Member <= 2.1.11 Privilege Escalation
CVE-2020-36155 - 9.9CVE-2020-36156: Ultimate Member <= 2.1.11 Privilege Escalation
CVE-2020-36156 - 9.8CVE-2024-1071: Ultimate Member SQL Injection
CVE-2024-1071 - 9.8CVE-2023-3460: Ultimate Member <= 2.6.6 Privilege Escalation
CVE-2023-3460 - 9.8Ultimate Member <= 1.3.83 Shortcode Injection
- 9.8Ultimate Member <= 1.3.75 Password Reset
- 9.8Ultimate Member Authorization Bypass to Arbitrary File Upload/Delete
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