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PloneApplication

CVE-2020-7941

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-01-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 5.2.1 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
A privilege escalation issue in plone.app.contenttypes in Plone 4.3 through 5.2.1 allows users to PUT (overwrite) some content without needing write permission.

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

plone.app.contenttypes in Plone 4.3 through 5.2.1 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability where authenticated users can perform PUT requests to overwrite certain content objects without having the required write permissions, allowing unauthorized modification of content.

MitigationUpgrade Plone to a version beyond 5.2.1 that includes the security patch, or apply the vendor-supplied patch to plone.app.contenttypes.

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
PloneApplication
Affected:>= 4.3.0, <= 5.2.1

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. Identify installed Plone version
    Access the Plone control panel (Site Setup > About Plone) or check the version file in the Plone installation directory (version.txt or __version__ in the Plone package). Alternatively, use the ZMI (Zope Management Interface) to check the product version information.
    Affected if The installed Plone version is 4.3.0 through 5.2.1 inclusive.
  2. Verify plone.app.contenttypes is in use
    Check the installed Python packages via pip list or buildout to confirm plone.app.contenttypes is installed. In the ZMI, navigate to Products.plone_contenttypes or check the products control panel.
    Affected if plone.app.contenttypes is installed and the Plone version falls within the affected range.
  3. Confirm PUT request handling is enabled
    Check the ZMI (Zope Management Interface) at /manage_main > WebDAV > WebDAV support or inspect the site configuration. Also verify if the 'WebDAV' or 'DAV' module is enabled in site setup or via the ZMI portal_properties.
    Affected if PUT/DAV functionality is enabled on the Plone site, allowing WebDAV-style PUT requests to content objects.
  4. Check for authenticated user access
    Review user roles and permissions in Site Setup > Users and Groups. Verify which authenticated users have access to content and whether they have limited write permissions.
    Affected if The site has authenticated users with limited or restricted write permissions who could potentially exploit the PUT request vulnerability.

A Plone installation is affected if it runs version 4.3.0 through 5.2.1, uses plone.app.contenttypes, and has WebDAV/PUT request handling enabled, allowing authenticated users to overwrite content without proper write permissions.

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 a release after 5.2.1
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Plone to a version beyond 5.2.1 that includes the security patch, or apply the vendor-supplied patch to plone.app.contenttypes.

Recommended fix High confidence

Plone 5.2.2 (for 5.x) or Plone 4.3.19 (for 4.3.x)

  1. Back up your Plone database and site instance before upgrading
  2. If running Plone 5.2.1 or earlier in the 5.x line: Upgrade to Plone 5.2.2 which contains the security hotfix for this vulnerability
  3. If running Plone 4.3.x: Upgrade to Plone 4.3.19 which contains the security hotfix for this vulnerability
  4. Run the Plone buildout or upgrade script for your deployment
  5. Restart all Plone application server processes
  6. Verify the upgrade was successful and test that PUT permissions are now properly enforced
Caveat Plone 5.2.2 may include minor feature changes; review release notes before upgrading. Test in staging environment recommended.

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

Fix this in Plone Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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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-2020-7941 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