BackWPup <= 4.0.1 - Authenticated (Administrator+) Directory Traversal

6.8
Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
CVE CVE-2023-5505
CVSS 6.8 (Medium)
Publicly Published August 16, 2024
Last Updated August 17, 2024
Researcher Marco Wotschka - Wordfence

Description

The BackWPup plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Directory Traversal in versions up to, and including, 4.0.1 via the job-specific backup folder. This allows authenticated attackers to store backups in arbitrary folders on the server provided they can be written to by the server. Additionally, default settings will place an index.php and a .htaccess file into the chosen directory (unless already present) when the first backup job is run that are intended to prevent directory listing and file access. This means that an attacker could set the backup directory to the root of another site in a shared environment and thus disable that site.

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Vulnerability Details for BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin

Software Type Plugin
Software Slug backwpup (view on wordpress.org)
Patched? Yes
Remediation Update to version 4.0.2, or a newer patched version
Affected Version
  • <= 4.0.1
Patched Version
  • 4.0.2

Recent vulnerabilities in BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin

# Title CVE ID CVSS Researchers Date
1 BackWPup <= 5.6.6 - Authenticated (Administrator+) Local File Inclusion via 'block_name' Parameter CVE-2026-6227 7.2 Pixel_DefaultBR April 13, 2026
2 BackWPup 5.0.0 - 5.6.2 - Authenticated (BackWPup Helper+) Privilege Escalation via Arbitrary Options Update CVE-2025-15041 7.2 0N0ise February 18, 2026
3 BackWPup 5 - 5.5.0 - Missing Authorization to Sensitive Information Exposure CVE-2025-10579 5.3 Dmitrii Ignatyev October 24, 2025
4 BackWPup <= 4.0.2 - Plaintext Storage of Backup Destination Password CVE-2023-5775 2.2 Stefan Marjanov February 23, 2024
5 BackWPup <= 4.0.3 - Sensitive Information Exposure CVE-2023-7164 7.5 Dmitrii Ignatyev December 18, 2023
6 BackWPup <= 4.0.1 - Authenticated (Administrator+) Directory Traversal CVE-2023-5504 8.7 Marco Wotschka November 22, 2023
7 BackWPup <= 3.4.1 - Unauthenticated Backup Download CVE-2017-2551 7.5 Larry W. Cashdollar September 8, 2017
8 BackWPup < 3.0.13 - Cross-Site Scripting CVE-2013-4626 6.1 High-Tech Bridge Security Research Lab August 21, 2013
9 BackWPup <= 1.7.1 - Remote File Inclusion CVE-2011-4342 9.8 Phil Taylor - Sense of Security Labs March 28, 2011
10 BackWPup – WordPress Backup Plugin < 1.4.1 - Directory Traversal CVE-2011-5208 7.5 Danilo Massa March 2, 2011

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