CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2022-2431 — The Download Manager plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary file deletion in versions up to, and including 3.2.50

High CVSS 8.8

The Download Manager plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary file deletion in versions up to, and including 3.2.50. This is due to insufficient file type and path validation on the deleteFiles() function found in the ~/Admin/Menu/Packages.php file that triggers upon download post deletion. This makes it possible for contributor level users and above to supply an arbitrary file path via the 'file[files]' parameter when creating a download post and once the user deletes the post the supplied arbitrary file will be deleted. This can be used by attackers to delete the /wp-config.php file which will reset the installation and make it possible for an attacker to achieve remote code execution on the server.

Severity
High
CVSS
8.8 (3.1)
Published
2022-09-06
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
php/wordpress
Weaknesses
CWE-73, CWE-610

Affected products

  • w3eden / download_manager

Matched remediation archetype

Server-side request forgery and unintended proxying

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Inventory server-side URL fetchers, webhooks, importers, previews, redirects, proxies, and protocol handlers reachable from untrusted input.
  • Map egress paths to internal services, metadata endpoints, loopback, private address space, and privileged control planes.
  • Review DNS resolution, redirect, proxy, credential-forwarding, and URL parsing behavior without requesting sensitive targets.

Remediate safely

  • Replace arbitrary destinations with named integrations or a strict allowlist of schemes, hosts, ports, and paths.
  • Resolve and validate every destination and redirect hop, then enforce egress policy independently of application checks.
  • Remove ambient credentials and sensitive headers from fetchers; apply response size, time, and content limits.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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