Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 3.0
- Affected Plugin
- A Page Flip Book
- Affected Version
< 3.0- CVSS
- 9.8Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-22 · Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
- CVE
CVE-2012-6652
At a glance
CVE-2012-6652 is a critical-severity Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in the A Page Flip Book WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 3.0. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 3.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2012, reported by Charlie Eriksen.
Vulnerability Overview
Directory traversal vulnerability in pageflipbook.php script from index.php in Page Flip Book plugin for WordPress (wppageflip) allows remote attackers to include and execute arbitrary local files via a .. (dot dot) in the pageflipbook_language 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, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
Reaching this weakness in A Page Flip Book < 3.0 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 A Page Flip Book the fix is 3.0: builds < 3.0 are affected, anything from 3.0 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 3.0, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to A Page Flip Book: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: A Page Flip Book 3.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C