CVE-2013-4192 in Plone
Summary
by MITRE
sendto.py in Plone 2.1 through 4.1, 4.2.x through 4.2.5, and 4.3.x through 4.3.1 allows remote authenticated users to spoof emails via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/07/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-4192 affects the Plone content management system across multiple versions including 2.1 through 4.1, 4.2.x through 4.2.5, and 4.3.x through 4.3.1. This security flaw resides within the sendto.py module which is responsible for email functionality within the Plone platform. The vulnerability specifically enables remote authenticated users to spoof email communications, representing a significant compromise to the system's email integrity and trust mechanisms. The issue stems from improper validation and handling of email spoofing vectors that allow malicious actors to manipulate email headers and content.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the manipulation of email sending functionality where authenticated users can exploit unspecified vectors to alter email headers, particularly the sender and recipient information. This flaw falls under the category of email spoofing attacks and can be categorized as a weakness in the email validation and sanitization processes within the Plone framework. The vulnerability represents a direct violation of the principle of least privilege and trust integrity, as it allows users to impersonate other users or systems when sending emails through the platform. Attackers can leverage this to conduct social engineering campaigns, phishing attempts, or to bypass email security controls that rely on proper sender authentication.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates serious security implications for organizations using Plone systems. The ability to spoof emails can lead to successful phishing attacks, compromise user trust in the platform, and potentially enable further attacks through social engineering. The vulnerability affects both the integrity and authenticity of email communications within the system, which can result in unauthorized information disclosure, reputation damage, and potential compromise of other systems that rely on email verification. Organizations may face regulatory compliance issues if email spoofing capabilities are exploited to send malicious content or fraudulent communications.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2013-4192 should focus on immediate patching of affected Plone versions to the latest available releases that contain the necessary security fixes. Organizations should also implement additional email security measures including strict email header validation, implementation of domain-based message authentication, reporting, and conformance standards, and monitoring for suspicious email patterns. The vulnerability aligns with attack patterns documented in the ATT&CK framework under email spoofing and social engineering techniques, and represents a weakness that can be exploited as part of broader attack chains. Security administrators should also consider implementing email filtering solutions that can detect and block spoofed email attempts, and establish regular security audits of email functionality within the system. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper input validation and the need for robust email security controls in content management systems that handle user-generated email communications. The issue can be classified under CWE-20, which deals with improper input validation, and represents a clear example of how authentication bypass mechanisms can lead to privilege escalation through email manipulation.