WPS Office, a popular office suite utilized by millions worldwide, has been found to harbor a critical vulnerability associated with Path Traversal. Designated as CVE-2024-35205 with a severity rating of 4.2 (Medium), this flaw affects WPS Office up to version 16.x on Android devices, potentially compromising user security.
The vulnerability stems from inadequate sanitization of file names processed through external application interactions within WPS Office. This oversight allows threat actors to manipulate file paths, leading to unauthorized access outside of restricted directories. Exploitation of this vulnerability enables threat actors to execute arbitrary commands under the guise of WPS Office’s application ID.
Microsoft, addressing this as the “Dirty Steam” Attack, highlights the risk of remote file access using FTP and SMB protocols with user credentials stored in plain text. Fortunately, the vulnerability has been patched in WPS Office version 17.0.0 for Android. Users are strongly urged to update to the latest version to mitigate potential exploitation by threat actors.
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