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Advanced Custom Fields < 5.12.3 can allow unauthenticated users to upload arbitrary files

by James Golovich

Arbitrary File Upload

Advanced Custom Fields and Advanced Custom Fields Pro have 2+ million installs according to wordpress.org. Versions older than 5.12.3 allow unauthenticated users to upload arbitrary files if there is a frontend form available. This vulnerability was introduced in the 5.0 rewrite and did not exist prior to that release.

Fortunately by default WordPress does not allow uploading of .php files so this vulnerability is not easily wormable, but there are many other file types that can be uploaded that can be then used with another exploit to execute code or used in a phishing attack to get a user to download and execute a resource from a “trusted” site.

No exploit code is being released at this time.

Timeline

  • 7/11/2022 Contacted developer
  • 7/12/2022 Disclosed vulnerability
  • 7/13/2022 Patch received from developer for testing
  • 7/14/2022 Fix deployed to GitHub and pushed to wordpress.org plugin repository

Elementor Page Builder < 1.8 allows logged in users unrestricted editing

by James Golovich

Elementor Page Builder versions less than 1.8 contain a major security issue that allows logged in users (not just admin) unrestricted access to the Elementor specific backend functions.  This allows unrestricted importing/exporting of content and potentially complete site compromise. The WordPress.org repository claims there are over 300,000 active installations.

If you are running an older version, upgrade immediately.  The Elementor team did not appear to be planning any disclosure or notification and the only indication in the changelog of any potential issues is “Fix! – Patched nonce validation for all library actions” along with additional nonce related fixes over the next few days to deal with bugs related to this patching.

Details

Due to the large number of installs I will not describe the exact steps to exploit these methods.  Many of the AJAX actions are accessible to any logged in user.  Some of the actions are protected with the ‘elementor-editing’ nonce, unfortunately that was leaked to any logged in user via the WordPress heartbeat.

Timeline

  • 10/17/2017 Sent initial contact inquiry
  • 10/18/2017 Received response and disclosure sent
  • 10/26/2017 Followup message sent to check status
  • 11/7/2017 Version 1.8.0 released

Ultimate Member < 1.3.84 allows executing arbitrary WordPress shortcodes

by James Golovich

Shortcode Injection Vulnerability

Ultimate Member versions older than 1.3.84 allow unauthenticated users to execute arbitrary WordPress shortcodes via AJAX. The vulnerable code exists as far back as version 1.0.0 when the plugin was first published. If you are using any version of this plugin, update immediately. At this time, the plugin revision notes do not address this vulnerability nor has the developer released any information related to this issue.

The default WordPress shortcodes are relatively secure but other installed plugins often include insecure shortcodes, including the Ultimate Member plugin. Some of the Ultimate Member shortcodes are documented at http://docs.ultimatemember.com/article/210-ultimate-member-shortcodes.

Executing arbitrary shortcodes

Ultimate Member adds the ‘ultimatemember_frontend_modal’ AJAX action which is accessible to anyone whether they are logged in or not. This allows passing arbitrary arguments to the do_shortcode() function and returns the results.

 

Include arbitrary PHP files

Using directory traversal and the ‘ultimatemember_account’ shortcode PHP files accessible on the host can be included. The following function is what is called when the ‘ultimatemember_account’ shortcode is executed.

 

Adding a template argument to the shortcode allows the PHP file to be included.

For example the following shortcode call allows viewing some user stats from the dashboard:

[ultimatemember_account template=../admin/templates/dashboard/users]

If a method could be discovered that allows uploading arbitrary PHP code, this could be used to execute that code.

Timeline