CVE-2011-3615
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedMultiple SQL injection vulnerabilities in Simple Machines Forum (SMF) before 1.1.15 and 2.x before 2.0.1 allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands via vectors involving a (1) HTML entity or (2) display name. NOTE: some of these details are obtained from third party information.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceMultiple SQL injection vulnerabilities in Simple Machines Forum (SMF) versions before 1.1.15 and 2.0.1 allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands via malicious HTML entities or display names. The vulnerabilities are exploitable without authentication and could allow complete database compromise.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 1.1.14= 1.0= 1.0.1= 1.0.2= 1.0.3= 1.0.4= 1.0.5= 1.0.6= 1.0.7= 1.0.8= 1.0.9= 1.0.10CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify SMF versionCheck the version.php file in your SMF installation directory, or log into the admin control panel and view the forum version information under 'Support' or 'Maintenance' sections.Affected if The installed version is 1.1.14 or lower, or is version 2.0.0 or lower, or matches any of the 1.0.x versions listed in the affected range (1.0 through 1.0.10).
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Confirm SMF is accessible to unauthenticated usersAttempt to access the forum login and registration pages from an external network without being logged in. Verify that the forum permits guest access to view posts and user profiles.Affected if The forum allows unauthenticated (guest) access to features that process user-supplied display names or profile information.
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Check if custom display names are allowedReview the SMF admin settings under 'Registration' or 'Member Settings' to determine if users can set custom display names or if the system uses usernames directly from user input.Affected if Users can register or edit their profile to set custom display names without sanitization, or if HTML entity encoding is not properly handled before database queries.
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Identify database user privilegesExamine your database configuration and the database user account used by SMF. Check if the SMF database user has privileges beyond what is necessary for forum operation, such as DROP, GRANT, or file operation permissions.Affected if The SMF database user has elevated privileges (such as administrative or file permissions) that could allow an attacker who exploits the SQL injection to compromise the entire database.
Your environment is affected if SMF is running any version before 1.1.15 or 2.0.1, the forum is accessible to unauthenticated users, and users can submit custom display names or profile data that gets stored and processed without proper SQL sanitization.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade SMF to version 1.1.15 or 2.0.1 or later. If immediate patching is not possible, consider restricting access to the forum or implementing web application firewall rules to filter malicious input.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2011-3615 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2011-3615 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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