Parallels Plesk PanelApplication · Parallels

CVE-2013-0133

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-04-18
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Untrusted search path vulnerability in /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/wrapper in Parallels Plesk Panel 11.0.9 allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted PATH environment variable.

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 confidence

Local privilege escalation vulnerability in Parallels Plesk Panel 11.0.9's admin wrapper script (/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/wrapper) due to an untrusted search path. A local attacker can manipulate the PATH environment variable to inject malicious executables that the wrapper will execute with elevated (root) privileges, bypassing authentication controls.

MitigationRestrict the PATH environment variable to trusted system directories only (e.g., /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin) before executing Plesk utilities, or upgrade to a patched version of Plesk Panel that uses absolute paths or sanitizes the PATH variable.

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
Parallels Plesk PanelApplication
Affected:= 11.0.9

CVSS 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
Local
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Plesk Panel installation
    Run: dpkg -l | grep -i plesk or rpm -qa | grep -i plesk
    Affected if Plesk Panel is not installed on the system
  2. Verify exact version is 11.0.9
    Run: /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/sw-engine-pleskrun --version or check /usr/local/psa/version file
    Affected if Version returned is exactly 11.0.9
  3. Check if vulnerable wrapper exists
    Run: ls -la /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/wrapper
    Affected if The wrapper file exists at this path
  4. Inspect wrapper for PATH dependency
    Read the wrapper script content: cat /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/wrapper and look for commands invoked without absolute paths (e.g., without leading /)
    Affected if The script uses relative commands or does not sanitize the PATH environment variable before executing binaries
  5. Check wrapper permissions
    Run: ls -la /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/wrapper and verify ownership and permissions
    Affected if The file is owned by root and has setuid/setgid bits, or is executable by privileged users

If Plesk Panel version 11.0.9 is installed and the wrapper script at /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/wrapper exists and uses untrusted search paths, the system is vulnerable to local privilege escalation via PATH manipulation.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Restrict the PATH environment variable to trusted system directories only (e.g., /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin) before executing Plesk utilities, or upgrade to a patched version of Plesk Panel that uses absolute paths or sanitizes the PATH variable.

Fix this in Parallels Plesk Panel Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,090
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2013-0133 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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