CVE-2018-16966

File Manager <= 3.0 - Cross-Site Request Forgery

2018-09-17 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 3.1
Affected Plugin: File Manager
Affected Version: <= 3.0
CVSS: 8.8High
Weakness type: CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CVE: CVE-2018-16966

At a glance

CVE-2018-16966 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the File Manager WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.0. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 3.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2018, reported by Mohammed Ansari.

Vulnerability Overview

There is a CSRF vulnerability in the File Manager plugin 3.0 for WordPress via the page=wp_file_manager_root public_path parameter.

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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

Reaching this weakness in File Manager <= 3.0 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site request forgery abuses the fact that browsers attach a victim's cookies to any request, so a state-changing action that only checks who you are, not whether you meant to act, can be triggered from another site.

An attacker who gets a logged-in user to load a crafted page can perform that action as them, with the impact scaling to whatever the victim's role is allowed to do. For File Manager the fix is 3.1: builds <= 3.0 are affected, anything from 3.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to File Manager: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: File Manager 3.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-16966 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e93632e3-7321-48ee-828a-c539e16f07b2 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-16966

Related records

Same weakness class

8.8CVE-2024-1538: File Manager <= 7.2.4 CSRF to Local JS File InclusionCVE-2024-1538

Other vulnerabilities in File Manager

CVSS Vector

8.8

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionRequired
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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