Privilege escalation in Sulu

CVE-2021-43835

Sulu is an open-source PHP content management system based on the Symfony framework. In affected versions Sulu users who have access to any subset of the admin UI are able to elevate their privilege. Over the API it was possible for them to give themselves permissions to areas which they did not already had. This issue was introduced in 2.0.0-RC1 with the new ProfileController putAction. The versions have been patched in 2.2.18, 2.3.8 and 2.4.0. For users unable to upgrade the only known workaround is to apply a patch to the ProfileController manually.

Vulnerability class: Privilege Escalation

EPSS: 0.011 (63.2th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.2 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Affected products

  • Sulu — versions 2.4.0, >= 2.0.0, < 2.2.18, >= 2.3.0, < 2.3.8

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-43835?
CVE-2021-43835 is a high-severity vulnerability in Sulu, classified under Improper Privilege Management. CVSS score: 7.2/10. Published 2021-12-15.
How severe is CVE-2021-43835?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.2 out of 10.
Is CVE-2021-43835 known to be exploited?
2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.