CVE-2005-0776 in PhotoPost PHP Pro
Summary
by MITRE
adm-photo.php in PhotoPost PHP 5.0 RC3 does not properly verify administrative privileges before manipulating photos, which could allow remote attackers to manipulate other users photos.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/12/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2005-0776 resides within the adm-photo.php component of PhotoPost PHP version 5.0 RC3, representing a critical authorization flaw that undermines the application's security model. This issue stems from inadequate administrative privilege verification mechanisms that fail to properly authenticate user roles before executing photo manipulation operations. The flaw allows remote attackers to bypass intended access controls and perform unauthorized actions on photographs owned by other users, effectively creating a privilege escalation vector within the application's administrative interface.
This vulnerability manifests as a classic authorization bypass weakness that aligns with CWE-285, which categorizes improper authorization scenarios in software systems. The technical implementation flaw occurs when the adm-photo.php script fails to validate whether the requesting user possesses sufficient administrative privileges to perform photo modification operations. Without proper session validation or role-based access control checks, malicious actors can exploit this gap to manipulate photo data belonging to other users, potentially leading to data integrity violations and unauthorized content modification.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, as it creates a persistent threat vector that can be exploited by remote attackers without requiring local system access or elevated privileges. Attackers can leverage this flaw to delete, modify, or manipulate photographs that they do not own, potentially causing reputational damage to users whose content is compromised. The vulnerability affects the core functionality of the photo management system and undermines the trust model that users expect when interacting with the application's administrative features.
From a cybersecurity perspective, this vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of implementing robust access control mechanisms within web applications. The flaw directly contradicts established security best practices and represents a failure to implement proper input validation and privilege verification procedures. Organizations utilizing PhotoPost PHP 5.0 RC3 should immediately implement mitigations including code reviews to ensure proper administrative privilege checks, implementation of role-based access controls, and comprehensive testing of authentication mechanisms. Additionally, this vulnerability highlights the need for regular security assessments and the importance of maintaining up-to-date software versions to prevent exploitation of known security flaws. The incident underscores the necessity of following security frameworks such as the OWASP Top Ten and implementing defense-in-depth strategies to protect against unauthorized access to sensitive data and system resources.