CVE-2019-11231
An issue was discovered in GetSimple CMS through 3.3.15. insufficient input sanitation in the theme-edit.php file allows upload of files…
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- mitre
Description
An issue was discovered in GetSimple CMS through 3.3.15. insufficient input sanitation in the theme-edit.php file allows upload of files with arbitrary content (PHP code, for example). This vulnerability is triggered by an authenticated user; however, authentication can be bypassed. According to the official documentation for installation step 10, an admin is required to upload all the files, including the .htaccess files, and run a health check. However, what is overlooked is that the Apache HTTP Server by default no longer enables the AllowOverride directive, leading to data/users/admin.xml password exposure. The passwords are hashed but this can be bypassed by starting with the data/other/authorization.xml API key. This allows one to target the session state, since they decided to roll their own implementation. The cookie_name is crafted information that can be leaked from the frontend (site name and version). If a someone leaks the API key and the admin username, then they can bypass authentication. To do so, they need to supply a cookie based on an SHA-1 computation of this known information. The vulnerability exists in the admin/theme-edit.php file. This file checks for forms submissions via POST requests, and for the csrf nonce. If the nonce sent is correct, then the file provided by the user is uploaded. There is a path traversal allowing write access outside the jailed themes directory root. Exploiting the traversal is not necessary because the .htaccess file is ignored. A contributing factor is that there isn't another check on the extension before saving the file, with the assumption that the parameter content is safe. This allows the creation of web accessible and executable files with arbitrary content.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.0 | Critical9.8 | CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 71.6% · top 0.6% of all CVEs (6 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 9.8.
Weakness
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References (2)
- https://ssd-disclosure.com/?p=3899&preview=true (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/152961/GetSimpleCMS-3.3.15-Remote-Code-Execution.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2019-11231)Record last updated .