# CVE-2021-24549: AceIDE <= 2.6.2 - Authenticated (admin+) Arbitrary File Access

> Administrators can read arbitrary files on the web server via path traversal in the AceIDE WordPress plugin.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.9 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 23 Aug 2021
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-w5m3-5gh7-fq59

## What is CVE-2021-24549?

CVE-2021-24549 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Unknown AceIDE, published on 23 Aug 2021. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The AceIDE WordPress plugin through 2.6.2 does not sanitise or validate the user input which is appended to system paths before using it in various actions, such as to read arbitrary files from the server. This allows high privilege users such as administrator to access any file on the web server outside of the blog directory via a path traversal attack.

Weakness: CWE-22 (Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-24549?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Aceide Project Aceide.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-24549?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-24549 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-24549 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-24549 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-24549 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-24549 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Unknown AceIDE, published on 23 Aug 2021. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-24549 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Unknown AceIDE. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-24549/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-24549/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-24549
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24549
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-24549

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-24549/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.