Affiliate Links: WordPress Plugin for Link Cloaking and Link Management <= 3.0.1 - Missing Authorization to Unauthenticated Import/Export and PHP Object Injection
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 3.1.0
- Affected Plugin
- Affiliate Links – Link Cloaking and Management
- Affected Version
<= 3.0.1- CVSS
- 8.1High
- Weakness type
- CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
- CVE
CVE-2024-13556
At a glance
CVE-2024-13556 is a high-severity Missing Authorization vulnerability in the Affiliate Links WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.0.1. It carries a CVSS score of 8.1 (reachable over the network; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 3.1.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2025, reported by Lucio Sá.
Vulnerability Overview
The Affiliate Links: WordPress Plugin for Link Cloaking and Link Management plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to PHP Object Injection in all versions up to, and including, 3.0.1 via deserialization of untrusted input from an file export. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject a PHP Object. No known POP chain is present in the vulnerable software, which means this vulnerability has no impact unless another plugin or theme containing a POP chain is installed on the site. If a POP chain is present via an additional plugin or theme installed on the target system, it may allow the attacker to perform actions like delete arbitrary files, retrieve sensitive data, or execute code depending on the POP chain present.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, and no privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-862: Missing Authorization
Reaching this weakness in Affiliate Links <= 3.0.1 takes no account at all. A missing authorization check means a function is reachable by anyone who can reach the endpoint, because the code never asks whether the caller is allowed to perform the action.
Any user who can reach the endpoint gets to run an action reserved for higher-privileged roles, from reading protected data to changing settings or content. For Affiliate Links the fix is 3.1.0: builds <= 3.0.1 are affected, anything from 3.1.0 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 3.1.0, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
This one needs no account at all, which puts it outside what login hardening can reach; WordSec's login security narrows the account-level paths around it, and the firewall is what inspects the request itself. None of that substitutes for the fix: Affiliate Links 3.1.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Affiliate Links – Link Cloaking and Management
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