CVE-2011-5051

WP Symposium < 11.12.24 - Arbitrary File Upload

2011-12-28 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 11.12.24
Affected Plugin: WP Symposium
Affected Version: < 11.12.24
CVSS: 8.8High
Weakness type: CWE-434 · Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type
CVE: CVE-2011-5051

At a glance

CVE-2011-5051 is a high-severity Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type vulnerability in the WP Symposium WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 11.12.24. 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 11.12.24; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed December 2011.

Vulnerability Overview

Multiple unrestricted file upload vulnerabilities in the WP Symposium plugin before 11.12.24 for WordPress allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by uploading a file with an executable extension using (1) uploadify/upload_admin_avatar.php or (2) uploadify/upload_profile_avatar.php, then accessing it via a direct request to the file in an unspecified directory inside the webroot.

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 WP Symposium < 11.12.24 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 WP Symposium the fix is 11.12.24: builds < 11.12.24 are affected, anything from 11.12.24 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 11.12.24, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to WP Symposium: 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: WP Symposium 11.12.24 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Scanner
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2011-5051 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/9a03f2dc-21c4-44e9-b7bf-8d4420430466 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2011-5051

Related records

Same weakness class

9.8CVE-2014-10021: WP Symposium <= 14.11 Arbitrary File UploadCVE-2014-10021

Other vulnerabilities in WP Symposium

CVSS Vector

8.8

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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