Invision Power BoardApplication · Invisioncommunity

CVE-2013-3725

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-02-12
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.0.0 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable 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
Invision Power Board (IPB) through 3.x allows admin account takeover leading to code execution.

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 · moderate confidence

Invision Power Board (IPB) versions through 3.x contains a critical vulnerability allowing unauthenticated attackers to take over administrator accounts, which can then be leveraged to achieve remote code execution on the underlying server.

MitigationUpgrade IPB to the latest patched version immediately. Audit existing admin accounts for unauthorized modifications and check for any existing compromise before applying the upgrade.

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
Invision Power BoardApplication
Affected:< 4.0.0

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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. Locate IPB version file
    Check the version.php or similar file in your IPB installation root directory, or access the admin control panel and navigate to System > Overview to view the software version
    Affected if The displayed version is 3.x or any version lower than 4.0.0
  2. Identify admin panel access
    Verify whether the admin control panel is accessible via the /admin/ directory and check if default or weak admin credentials are in use
    Affected if The admin panel is exposed and uses default credentials or credentials that may have been compromised
  3. Review admin account modifications
    Log into the admin panel and navigate to Members > Members > Manage Members to review all accounts with administrator privileges for any unauthorized or unexpected additions
    Affected if New or unknown admin accounts exist that were not created by your organization
  4. Check for suspicious admin activity logs
    Examine the admin login history and action logs in the admin control panel under System > Logs for any unauthorized admin access from unfamiliar IP addresses
    Affected if Admin login or action records show activity from IP addresses you do not recognize

Your environment is affected if the installed IPB version is any release prior to 4.0.0, as the vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to hijack administrator accounts.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 4.0.0 or later
Fixed in 4.0.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade IPB to the latest patched version immediately. Audit existing admin accounts for unauthorized modifications and check for any existing compromise before applying the upgrade.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Invision Power Board 4.0.0 or later (preferably latest stable release)

  1. 1. Backup the existing IPB installation and database before any changes
  2. 2. Download Invision Power Board 4.0.0 or later from the official vendor website (invisionpower.com)
  3. 3. Follow the official IPB upgrade documentation to install the new version
  4. 4. Verify the upgrade was successful and test that admin functionality works correctly
  5. 5. Ensure the admin account credentials are changed after upgrade as a security precaution
Caveat Major version upgrade from 3.x to 4.x may have breaking changes - review upgrade notes for template/theme modifications and third-party plugin compatibility

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Invision Power Board Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,130
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,408.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-3725 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2013-3725 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
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data