{"id":56437,"date":"2025-07-01T15:53:42","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T15:53:42","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-08-31T06:31:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T12:31:58","slug":"cve-2021-4457-critical-unauthenticated-arbitrary-file-upload-vulnerability-in-zoomsounds-plugin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2021-4457-critical-unauthenticated-arbitrary-file-upload-vulnerability-in-zoomsounds-plugin\/","title":{"rendered":"CVE-2021-4457: Critical Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Upload Vulnerability in ZoomSounds Plugin<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n

The world of cybersecurity is always on the move, with vulnerabilities cropping up regularly. Recently, a significant security flaw-CVE-2021-4457-has been identified in the ZoomSounds WordPress plugin. This vulnerability is particularly concerning as it can lead<\/a> to potential system compromise or data leakage. Given the popularity of WordPress and the widespread use of plugins, this vulnerability has a broad impact surface and poses a serious<\/a> risk to a large number of websites.
\nZoomSounds, a widely-used audio player plugin, is used by countless websites to add multimedia features. However, versions of the plugin prior to 6.05 contain a critical flaw that allows unauthenticated users to upload arbitrary files<\/a> anywhere on the web server, thus putting the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of the data at risk.<\/p>\n

Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

CVE ID: CVE-2021-4457
\nSeverity: Critical (9.1 CVSS score)
\nAttack Vector: Network
\nPrivileges Required: None
\nUser Interaction: None
\nImpact: Potential system<\/a> compromise or data leakage<\/p>\n

Affected Products<\/strong><\/p>\n

Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n

ZoomSounds Plugin | Before 6.05<\/p>\n

How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n

The vulnerability lies in the implementation of the ZoomSounds plugin, which contains a PHP file<\/a> that does not properly validate user input. This allows unauthenticated users to upload arbitrary files<\/a> to any location on the webserver. The uploaded file could contain malicious code<\/a>, which, when executed, grants the attacker control over the system.<\/p>\n

Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p>\n

Below is a
\nconceptual<\/strong>
\n example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. This is a sample HTTP POST request demonstrating how a malicious user could upload an arbitrary file<\/a>:<\/p>\n

POST \/zoomsounds-upload\/endpoint.php HTTP\/1.1\nHost: vulnerable-website.com\nContent-Type: multipart\/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW\n----WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW\nContent-Disposition: form-data; name=\"file\"; filename=\"malicious.php\"\nContent-Type: application\/x-php\n\n----WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW<\/code><\/pre>\n
After the malicious file is uploaded, the attacker can then access this file via a web browser to execute the malicious code<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Mitigation Guidance<\/strong><\/p>\n
To mitigate this vulnerability, users of the ZoomSounds plugin<\/a> should immediately update to the latest version (6.05 or later), which contains a fix for this issue. If updating is not immediately possible, employing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation by blocking or alerting on attempts to exploit this vulnerability<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Overview The world of cybersecurity is always on the move, with vulnerabilities cropping up regularly. Recently, a significant security flaw-CVE-2021-4457-has been identified in the ZoomSounds WordPress plugin. This vulnerability is particularly concerning as it can lead to potential system compromise or data leakage. Given the popularity of WordPress and the widespread use of plugins, this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-56437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t