CVE-2014-4725

MailPoet Newsletters <= 2.6.6 - Arbitrary File Upload

2014-08-01 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.6.7
Affected Plugin: MailPoet Newsletters (Previous)
Affected Version: <= 2.6.6
CVSS: 9.8Critical
Weakness type: CWE-434 · Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type
CVE: CVE-2014-4725

View all MailPoet Newsletters (Previous) vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2014-4725 is a critical-severity Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type vulnerability in the MailPoet Newsletters (Previous) WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.6.6. 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 2.6.7; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2014, reported by Sucuri Research Team.

Vulnerability Overview

The MailPoet Newsletters (wysija-newsletters) plugin before 2.6.7 for WordPress allows remote attackers to bypass authentication and execute arbitrary PHP code by uploading a crafted theme using wp-admin/admin-post.php and accessing the theme in wp-content/uploads/wysija/themes/mailp/.

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-434: Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type

Reaching this weakness in MailPoet Newsletters (Previous) <= 2.6.6 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 MailPoet Newsletters (Previous) the fix is 2.6.7: builds <= 2.6.6 are affected, anything from 2.6.7 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.6.7, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to MailPoet Newsletters (Previous): 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: MailPoet Newsletters (Previous) 2.6.7 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Scanner
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-4725 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/a5763e3b-01b3-4541-8fef-80fcb7e7e88e https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-4725

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in MailPoet Newsletters (Previous)

CVSS Vector

9.8

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

Base

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

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