CVE-2024-1505

Academy LMS – eLearning and online course solution for WordPress <= 1.9.19 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation

2024-02-21 00:00
Lucio Sá

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.9.20
Affected Plugin
Academy LMS
Affected Version
<= 1.9.19
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management
CVE
CVE-2024-1505
View all Academy LMS vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2024-1505 is a high-severity Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in the Academy LMS WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.9.19. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Subscriber level or above. The issue is fixed in version 1.9.20; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2024, reported by Lucio Sá.

Vulnerability Overview

The Academy LMS – eLearning and online course solution for WordPress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in all versions up to, and including, 1.9.19. This is due to plugin allowing arbitrary user meta updates through the saved_user_info() function. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with minimal permissions such as students, to elevate their user role to that of an administrator.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management

Academy LMS <= 1.9.19 carries this weakness at saved_user_info(), and reaching it takes an account at Subscriber level or above. Improper privilege management means the code lets an account end up with capabilities its role should not have.

It converts a low-privileged account into an administrative one, which makes every other restriction on the site irrelevant. For Academy LMS the fix is 1.9.20: builds <= 1.9.19 are affected, anything from 1.9.20 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.9.20, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: Academy LMS 1.9.20 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-1505https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b150f90a-ccb7-4c19-a4b3-eaf9ec264ba8https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-1505

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C