CVE-2006-1711 in Plone
Summary
by MITRE
Plone 2.0.5, 2.1.2, and 2.5-beta1 does not restrict access to the (1) changeMemberPortrait, (2) deletePersonalPortrait, and (3) testCurrentPassword methods, which allows remote attackers to modify portraits.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/04/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2006-1711 affects Plone content management systems version 2.0.5, 2.1.2, and 2.5-beta1, representing a critical access control flaw that undermines the security posture of these web applications. This vulnerability specifically targets three methods within the Plone framework that handle user portrait management functionality, creating an unauthorized modification vector that could be exploited by remote attackers to manipulate user profile images. The issue stems from insufficient authorization checks within these methods, allowing attackers to bypass normal access controls and perform operations that should be restricted to authenticated users with appropriate permissions.
The technical flaw manifests in the lack of proper authentication and authorization validation within the changeMemberPortrait, deletePersonalPortrait, and testCurrentPassword methods. These methods are designed to manage user profile pictures and password verification, yet they fail to verify whether the requesting user possesses the necessary privileges to execute these operations. This represents a direct violation of the principle of least privilege and demonstrates poor input validation and access control implementation patterns. The vulnerability enables attackers to manipulate user portraits without proper authentication, potentially leading to unauthorized profile modifications that could be used for social engineering attacks or to obscure legitimate user identities within the system.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple profile modification, as it provides attackers with a foothold for further exploitation within the Plone environment. Remote attackers can leverage this weakness to alter user profile images, which may be used for phishing campaigns or to create confusion among other users. The ability to modify portraits without proper authorization creates potential for credential theft scenarios where attackers might use modified profile images to impersonate legitimate users. Additionally, this vulnerability could facilitate more sophisticated attacks by providing attackers with a method to establish persistence or manipulate user trust relationships within the application. The vulnerability affects the integrity of user data and could potentially be combined with other weaknesses to escalate privileges or gain deeper access to the system.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2006-1711 should focus on implementing proper access controls and authentication checks for all user management functions. System administrators should immediately upgrade to patched versions of Plone that address this vulnerability, as the affected versions represent outdated software that likely contains additional security flaws. The remediation process involves ensuring that all methods handling user profile modifications require proper authentication tokens and authorization checks before executing any operations. Organizations should also implement network segmentation and monitoring to detect unauthorized access attempts to user profile management functions. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-285, which addresses insufficient authorization issues, and could be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for credential harvesting, demonstrating how improper access controls can enable broader attack vectors within enterprise environments.